Karla's Kronicles #16

The Karla Kronicles #16 - Washington to Florida Travels, Part 3 Arriving in Florida and House-hunting!
Greetings Kronicle Readers! (Note: Larger and More Detailed Photos are in the Photo Albums Located HERE.)
Dear Readers....I'm still playing catch-up with this year-old journalizing. It's early November 2007 and we are finally in Florida. It's gone rather smoothly considering I've never driven that many miles before, let alone pulling the Cargo Trailer with Larry's BIKE in it! We felt so lucky to have places along the way that allowed us to park both vehicles at the various campgrounds. Now we were able to store the Cargo Trailer at 1000 Trails Orlando and park the Navigator at Dave and Diana's home in Clearwater. Finally, down to just one towed vehicle again!!!! Hurray, we MADE it!
From November 2007 to Mid-March 2008, we did the typical snowbird shuffle; going from campground-to-campground every 1-to-2 weeks; you get to see a lot of the area that way, but we didn't stray too far away from Central Florida as we had decided to concentrate our house-hunting prospects near the towns of Floral City and Inverness. This area of Florida is densely treed and nearby is Lake Tsala Apopka (sounds like "Sal-aa aa-popka") and the Withlacoochee State Forest (sounds just like it's spelled "with la coo chee")!! It's an area close enough to visit with Larry's family, far enough away from major city traffic, and good shopping nearby when needed. An excellent retirement location!
With the depressed housing market, we felt that making a buy at this time would be a wise investment, but we had some fairly specific criteria. We looked at over 30 houses and narrowed it down to 2. We made appointments for one more walk-through on each of these homes; taking photos at each so we could discuss pros and cons and make our decisions.
The house we purchased is in the community of Lecanto, FL. (just 5 miles West of Inverness). Something clicked and the house had some appointments that we really liked. The 3.5 car garage with overhead storage was pretty nice. An outbuilding for the riding mower and garden tools was another kudo. Being on a flat acre of land with easy access from 2 streets for RV and Cargo Trailer maneuvering was another. Some nice landscaping potential, Rain Bird irrigation system, and Security Alarm just about met all our criteria. Inside, a Great Room Design, cathedral ceilings, and split bedroom floor plan makes it fun for entertaining.
	The house is situated in Kensington Estates and we didn't want any involvement with a Home Owners Association, but as the seller explained, membership in the HOA is voluntary and is just $15/annually. In fact, our seller was not an active member. They use those funds to maintain the entrance sign and common lighted areas to the development. All lots are 1-acre and parking RVs is not restricted if they are not in the "front yard". It was sounding better and better so we talked to another neighbor regarding the association and called the HOA Treasurer to make sure the 2-page by-laws were indeed the entire HOA facts and asked some direct questions regarding the on-site storage of our RV and RV-guests dropping in to visit.

The seller accepted our first offer. It was as simple as that. She and her husband had built the house in 1997; she is a lovely lady who had been widowed 5 years earlier and the house was becoming too much for her to care for. She wanted to travel and see her Grand and Great Grandchildren and not be tied to a house and pool and large yard. So in this case, it was a win-win situation for everyone.
For Additional house photos, click "Florida Home 2008"
Getting settled in the house kept us busy this spring and we kept pushing back our departure in the RV for our summertime travel. There were some things that needed to be taken care of before we felt we could just up and leave for 3 to 4 months of traveling. The house purchase has been an adjustment and just like being full-time RVers, there are pro's and con's to different situations. We love our new home and there is so much potential for landscaping and some inside remodeling ideas that it makes things interesting. Since we had sold so much of our furniture when we began full-timing, our outdoor patio table became our kitchen set for the time being. We had to get 2 beds (our room and guest room) and some living room furniture and we found a very nice ma and pa furniture store with free delivery and set-up. They gave us some nice discounts because we were ordering several pieces.
Well, we never did go on our planned trip in 2008. In the midst of deciding when to leave and when to return, setting up pool care while we are gone, hiring the neighbor boy to mow the lawn and Larry's Dad having some medical concerns, we just never left town for any long trips...but our RVing days are definitely not over....
The 4th installment of "journalizing catch-up" is next..Spring/Summer of 2009. I hope I don't get this far behind again because my memory isn't what it used to be and it gets hard to dig it all back up! Hah!
AND We want to hear from you too! What's new in your lives? Travel...family...just what you've been up to? More later...Karla and Larry

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