T-Minus 247 Days: Covid Vaccine

 Join us as we get our Covid Vaccine shots in wintery upstate New York.

Video Link (2:40)

T-Minus 211 Days: End of the Quarantine

 After visiting Florida, we were required to have a two week quarantine. During that time, my wife and I were restricted only to our bedroom and office. Anything we needed had to be delivered to us and brought to our room.  That is the price we paid for going to Florida to look for a house.

We have been spending our time attempting to narrow down our home builder options. We have collected a lot of data and we have been trying to compare apple to apples between the wide variety of options. We are narrowing our search to the North West of Greater Orlando - into Lake County. Specifically, Minneola around the Turnpike. There are several builders in this area and we are happy with the lots and land we have seen.

As a promising next step, we have explored churches in this area and I had a brief conversation with a member of one of the churches we liked,

When looking at builders, they entice customers by announcing "Houses in the low $x00K", or, they'll show a fantastic house with a $x00K base price. Don't be fooled. All the houses in a particular area (Like Davenport, Clermont, Minneola, etc) will all cost, pretty much, the same per square foot. Some have CDD fees, some base options have more features while others are stripped down. When you get the houses to be comparable, the prices are very close. A house may have a cheaper base price, but that gets made up in the structural changes, the design center, lot costs, and other areas. 

One house that stood out from the rest in terms of cost was Highland Homes Wayfair in Highland Meadows. It has a final cost per square feet of approx $106. Before we went to Florida, the Wayfair by Highland Homes was at the top of our list. That changed after visiting the Highland Meadows development.

I still like the Wayfair. But I don't like where it is located, I don't like the high CDD fees ($139/mo), the community area that is a mile away (you'd have to drive to it), and I don't like their down payment process. Highland Homes requires 20% up front non-refundable deposit. They hold that deposit (earning interest) for the 8 +/1 months it takes to build the house before the deposit is applied to your closing. 8 months is a long time, and if something were to change your situation (getting laid off or furloughed, for example), you could loose $65,000 or more. That fact is ridiculous considering houses in Florida sells in days. Highland Homes would pocket your deposit, then sell the house in days to recoup their entire investment plus profit. I sent an email to their regional sales manager that I felt this practice was wrong. Of course, Highland Homes doesn't need to listen to me - they are selling houses faster than they can make them. This problem doesn't appear to bother other people because people are lining up to buy a Highland Home and they have sold something like seven phases just at Highland Meadows. Highland Homes have sold so many houses that the government has had to restrict how many they can sell every week because the government can't keep up with the building requests.

We are waiting on just a little more data from some home builders and then I believe we'll be ready to make a decision. Once we have that, we want to ready through the HOA documents, any CDD documents, lot options, and poor over the house blue prints.

T-Minus 433 days: A Pandemic Update

It is an odd thing to see our neighbors working on their house. There is an idea that people are bored, binge watching TV, and cleaning out their houses. My wife and I are working from home full time, and helping to home school our high school and college aged boys. We are as busy as we always have been.

Because we have been so busy, we have had no time to do anything to prepare for the move. We have talked about, perhaps, selling on Facebook marketplace - but there just aren't enough hours in the day.

On the one hand, I am very happy we still have our jobs. On the other hand, we sure could use the time to prepare for the move! In the end, I know it is better to be working.

We had planned to visit Florida in August to meet with a realestate agent, but now we aren't sure. Direct flights are very expensive, and indirect flights would increase our potential exposure to COVID-19. Also, right now, Florida requires people visiting from New York to be quarantined for two weeks. While I wouldn't mind being quarantined in Florida.... our plan is to only be in Florida for a week. If the quarantine requirement lifts and COVID-19 dies down, we might try to go.

There are many things we wanted to do during our last year in New York. We wanted to go to New York City again, Niagara Falls, drive down to Washington DC, and a long list of other things that will become impossible or very difficult once we move to Florida. Now, with COVID-19, I'm not sure any of this is possible. Our trip to New York City was supposed to be this month... and that isn't happening!

That's the update. Not much going on, but we are looking forward to our lives getting back on track!

T-Minus 447 days: waiting...

It feels like the world has stopped spinning due to the pandemic. We have made no progress on our purging nor preparing for the move. We planned to go to Florida in August to meet with a real estate agent and scout out some towns - that trip is now on hold. We wanted to sell some things on Facebook Market Place, but I don't know that anyone is buying from Market Place (I honestly haven't checked). We want to clean up some old toys for sale, but we don't have any more disinfectant wipes and there are none to be purchased anywhere.

So we wait.... and expect things will get better so we can get back on track with our Florida Move plans.

T-Minus 451 Days: Pandemic and Groceries

Instacart was booked for a week and we needed groceries so.... watch how we decontaminate our groceries and deliveries.

T-Minus 463 days: Using InstaCart

If you read this blog, you do so because you are interested in hearing about moving to Florida and about Disney World. You probably aren't too interested in the Great Pandemic of 2020. But the fact is, the pandemic has sidelined our work toward preparing to move.

I work from home, so, nothing new there. What is new: I am working 14 hours per day due to the impact of the pandemic on my company. My oldest son is in an online degree program, so, nothing new there. My youngest son's school closed, so, it is like having an early Spring Break for him. My wife is working from home, so, that's what is new. Work is slow and she isn't busy all day, so that gives her time for some spring cleaning.

We have decided to follow the government's advice and stay home (especially now that COVD-19 has been reported in our town). As part of that decision, we decided to have our groceries delivered by InstaCart. I have looked into InstaCart previously, but never used them.

I set up an account on the InstaCart website and selected my store. And then went through the website and created my grocery list. The items are all marked up versus the shelf tag to help cover the cost of the shopper and the delivery. In addition, there is a 5% fee on the order. There is also a 5% tip on the order too. I changed the tip to 10% initially, and after the groceries were delivered and we were happy, I changed it to 15%. The point is, it is much more expensive to have InstaCart deliver your groceries versus you shopping for your own groceries.

Another option with InstaCart is curb side pick-up instead of home delivery. Curbside pickup is more expensive than if you shopped yourself, but it is cheaper than home delivery (by about 15%)

I have to admit, I really liked the InstaCart home delivery. I made my list on a Wednesday for a Saturday delivery. I was told if InstaCart knew something would be out of stock. I was also allowed to select an alternative product if the item I wanted wasn't available. Then, while our shopper was shopping, she was continually texting us and telling us if something wasn't available or if we wanted something different.

InstaCart told us when our shopper had checked out, loaded her car, and was headed to our house. It also told us just before she arrived at the house. My instructions were to leave the groceries on our front porch - and she did!

Yes, InstaCart is more expensive compared to shopping yourself. But I would have no problems using the system again. Next weekend, I am going to try the curbside pickup!

T-Minus 465 Days: COVID-19 and Take Out Food

The world has stopped to pause for COVID-19, and so have we. Our purging and moving plans have been put on hold. In their place, we are spring cleaning the house from top to bottom, and my work has required many extra hours in response to the pandemic. We hope we'll be able to get back to our moving plans soon.

T-Minus 471 Day: Corona Virus

Our life has been sidelines by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Everything is getting canceled and closed. Follow along as we try to do our weekly grocery shopping.