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All the newer developments around here have militant HOA's. I'm way too much of a rebel at heart, I would find it very claustrophobic. We do have an HOA, but our lot sizes are 1.5 to 5 acres, with a few even bigger. So no one really cares what you do to your house, they are more concerned with common areas, pool, tennis court, club house.
I don't do HOA's. See, I like to do things such as hang our clothes to dry in our backyard. Many HOA's will not let you do that. Plus, I don't want to have to be paying the company money every month.
Plus, I don't want to have to be paying the company money every month.
Which are outrageous! That's why we got rid of the one managing ours. We just have a small common area and a couple areas that have to have snow removal. Our fees are only $58 a quarter.
txt and mm - glad things are getting better. They are saying that this year is shaping up to be as bad or worse than 2002. Which doesn't bode well. I can't believe how dry March has been.
I hope you all stay safe and away from the fire. That said...txtqueen. Now maybe you have some vague idea why it's a good idea to keep your room moderately straightened, or at least somewhat organized. Just remember the more crap you have, the easier it'll be for a fire to completely destroy your room and everything in it.
Although, I doubt even an emergency mandated evactuation will contribute to your comprehension.
Yeah I HAD my room like that, I went through my WHOLE room and my clothes and had organized everything at the nanny house just to have to the next day later destroy my room by throwing all my clothes into trash bags and putting them into my car. Now all my clothes are on my floor in my room and in boxes and just a mess and I don't even know where to put it all and didn't have anything to organize it with and I have NO shelves in my closet and no hangers.
I know it needs to be done and I know I should get it done and I know I would be screwed in the event of a evac but still, those circumstances don't make shelves or hangers appear in my closet to organize it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jkcoop
txt and mm - glad things are getting better. They are saying that this year is shaping up to be as bad or worse than 2002. Which doesn't bode well. I can't believe how dry March has been.
Yeah and its weird how you read about all this stuff and you never think it will happen near your town or anything and it always happens in like FoCo or Golden and stuff like that and all the tornadoes happen out in Kansas but my town had a tornado like 2 years ago and now we're having fires.
On HOA's...hubby wants us to move to the Villages when he retires. We currently live in the burbs, and we never even -heard- of HOA communities til my parents retired to one in Florida. I honestly really had never heard of such a thing and the entire concept is insane, to me. We have zoning laws in our town; that should be good enough. Apparently though, the Stepford Wives communities are very popular, even to women.
So in the Villages, you're not allowed to build a fence. At all. There are only certain trees you're allowed to plant, and in most of the village sections, you cannot plant fruit trees (it's in Florida). There is a list of approved colors for your home and door and shingles. You're not allowed to leave your car in your driveway overnight; it must be put in the garage. You're not allowed to paint your driveway, and in fact you're only allowed to have a custom-designed driveway, if you live in a section that provides for custom designs. And then, you are allowed to have only whichever one you select from their approved list.
You're not allowed to have satellite dishes on top of your home, or solar panels without getting approval from the Board, because it might look aesthetically disleasing. You're not allowed to put signs on your front lawn (such as, "Welcome to the Smith House!").
Tag sales in the driveway are verboten.
It goes on and on and on... I stopped at the "sorry, you're not allowed to build a fence on these properties, but these other properties that are 5-feet apart from each other, do come with fences, and you're not allowed to change them or remove them" part. Hubby still wants us to live there. I told him if we can find a place in the older part of the Villages, where they don't have such HOA restrictions, where people are allowed to put up privacy hedges, where you can put your car in your driveway whenever you like, where you're allowed to hang a birdfeeder from your tree without getting permission in triplicate, where you're allowed to paint your house lavender if that's how you REALLY want to present yourself...then I'd seriously consider moving there.
But the newer section, people have no privacy UNLESS they live in the sardine-can called "villas" that are literally only a few feet away from each other and positioned at an angle to provide the most quantity of homes per block. The back yards are only maybe 10 feet deep. The side yards are around 8 feet deep, and the other side is just a walkway between your house and the next house. It's apartment living, with JUST enough grass between each apartment that you have to pay someone to apply pesticide regularly and mow the lawn.
Well, unless you can get permission from the board to rip the lawn out and apply stone. But then you have to do the weedkiller thing and you -still- have to do the pesticide thing...
Yeah, Anon, I wouldn't move there. Sounds like you'd be miserable.
Morning all! Sounds like you all had an exciting evening.
Dew - did you ever listen to Phil Hendrie in LA? He had a hilarious character that was president of a HOA. Nailed that whole mentality perfectly.
Well tomorrow I am going on a little Florida vacation. I will see everyone in about a week!
Have fun!
Quote:
Originally Posted by jkcoop
Which are outrageous! That's why we got rid of the one managing ours. We just have a small common area and a couple areas that have to have snow removal. Our fees are only $58 a quarter.
Our HOA is huge, $127/quarter. The biggest plus is use of 4 rec centers. That's 4 tracks, 4 gyms, 4 indoor pools, 4 outdoor pools, etc.
Morning all....the fire here is 70% contained, all evacuations lifted with no damage to any structures...the wind has died down considerably so things should be good.
Happy Friday to all and ohiogirl - enjoy your vacation! How nice!
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