Smile, You're on Candid Camera!

Finally, in the end of the muggy month of August, our house had risen completely from the barren, sandy field and was ready for the final walk-through. We'd sacrified our last precious vacation day to come to Florida for the occasion. Thank goodness for Priceline; as usual, I bid on a Disney World area hotel and ended up in the Downtown Disney area for somewhere in the $65 range.

As our house was being built, we'd become intimately familiar with the Hyatt, the Hilton, and the Wyndham. We liked all three, as they were all within walking distance of Downtown Disney. Even though we had a car, sometimes it was nice to just take a stroll and have a soda at Ghirdelli's or squash soup at Wolfgang Puck's.

Because the house was now completed and locked, we could not go in and "visit" any longer. That had been the case on our last couple of trips, so on those occasions we poked around and looked in the windows like a couple of burglars, trying to get a glimpse of what the paint, carpeting, and tile looked like. One of the biggest thrills for me was when the electricity was hooked up and I discovered that the doorbell was functional. It seems totally silly now, but I got the biggest kick out of pressing the button and hearing the "ding dong." Good thing nobody ever answered or I would have had a heart attack!

By an odd coincidence, I had been sharing my experiences with our next-door neighbor to be. I met her on a Celebration discussion website, and I could tell by one of her postings that she was going to be in the same triplex. Turns out she had purchased the middle unit, which shares a wall with us. It was fun to have someone else to share the excitement and long wait via email. The internet is an amazing thing...what are the odds that I would run into my future neighbor online? The neighbor who purchased the other end unit remained a mystery, although the builder did tell us that she was a cruise director. That was of great interest to my husband and I, as we are absolute cruise fanatics.

We arrived early for the walk-through, and so did the builder's representative. He was the person who had overseen the construction of our home, so he was very knowledgeable. Normally, if you are in the area, he walks through the house with you at various points throughout the process. Unfortunately, since we were making our purchase long distance, we didn't have the opportunity to do that. But on our weekend visits, we had been satisfied with what we saw of the construction and craftsmanship. We had considered hiring a building inspector, but eventually we made the decision to take our chances.

We had read the many contruction horror stories about the early days of Celebration, but I suspected that 1) they were probably somewhat exaggerated; and 2) even if they weren't, surely things had improved in almost a decade. Our builder, Cambridge, had not even been involved in the initial villages, and they had a lot of experience building in Florida. I knew that was a plus; some of the biggest problems I'd read about occurred with the townhomes built by a company based in Oakbrook, Illinois, that had absolutely no experience dealing with the special needs of Florida's climate.

Our real estate agents had also come for moral support. They had been visiting our home site and sending along occasional photos, and now we had finally reached the big day. I still found it hard to believe that we had come so close to buying a condo, and now I was going to have my nice little house and yard, with the bonus of a porch that was just itching to have a swing hung on it.

My husband had brought his video camera to record all of the relevant details. I knew that we'd be getting a lot of information tossed at us in a short amount of time, and there would be no way to remember it all. Taping the walk-through seemed to be the best way to preserve it. That way, when we needed to know something important, like where the water shut-off or some electrical circuit is located, all we'd have to do is pop in the tape and fast forward.

I was a little concerned, as hubby had forgotten to charge the battery before our wedding, which means we have all of about five minutes of our nuptials on tape. Apparently he had learned from his mistake, as this time around he had charged the battery and brought a spare.

Our home is relatively small (a little under 1500 square feet), so I was amazed at the amount of detail involved. There were lots of Florida-specific things to keep in mind, such as pouring Simple Green through the pipe by the air conditioner to prevent mold and other icky things from building up. Instead of a traditional furnace, we had something called a "heat pump (I'm still not sure how it works, but it definitely kept us toasty on the cold nights that winter). There were fail safes in case the hot water tank, which was upstairs in the closet, overflowed, and strange safety systems involved with the outlets and fuses. Our home also had some peculiarities; for some obscure reason, it was considered a commercial building under the building code, so the standards were somewhat different than the ones for a "regular" single family home.

Our appliances were like something out of the Jetsons, particularly the flat top electric range. The last new home we purchased was nearly ten years before, and apparently household appliances have come a long way since then. The refrigerator was the one item that took the most getting used to, as the freezer was on the bottom instead of at the top. I was also pleased that it had an automatic ice maker, although I soon learned that's a necessity in Florida.

That's about all I can remember without referring back to the videotape. Good thing we recorded it all! There were a few minor things to add to the punch list for fixing. Most were typical, like a non-functioning electrical outlet, but the most unusual was a mismatched cabinet door in the kitchen. The incorrect door was so close to the others that you really had to look hard to spot the difference. But once you did, it was obvious (squared corners on the inlay instead of rounded).

Once the walk-through was over, I could feel my sense of excitement building to an almost intolerable level. The wait hadn't seemed so bad when we were 1500 miles away, and even when we had visited, seeing a building under construction wasn't so tantilizing. Now, seeing it in perfect, pristine, ready-to-move-in condition had brought the reality home. It was the home of our dreams, and it was almost ours! It was so hard to go back to a hotel room when that gorgeous home was sitting there empty.

Worse yet, once we did the closing by mail, we wouldn't actually get to spend our first night in the house until a couple of weeks later. Since our vacation days had run out, we were waiting until Labor Day weekend to return. That way, we'd at least be able to have an extra day to relax. A weekend goes by much too fast, but we'd have Monday too. We knew it would be rustic, since the furniture wasn't coming for a while, but what the heck...it would be OURS.

Little did we know that furniture was going to be a whole new experience, opening the door to a special hell that we never knew existed.

Next time...the Real Celebration, followed by Furniture Hell

Learn more about Celebration on my website: www.celebrationinfo.com

Details, Details, Details

Although I had thought it would seem like forever, closing time was rapidly approaching for our new home. I needed to take care of innumerable little details, like house insurance, utility hook-ups, and furniture (since we'd be living in two places at once for a while, our Celebration digs would have to be furnished pretty much from scratch).

The phone was the first detail I was able to take care of, thanks to the wonderful world of cell phones. It seemed silly to have a land line, especially when we'd be traveling back and forth between two states. So I simply got a cell phone with a 407 area code and a Kissimmee exchange, and our phone number was established before our house was even completed. Next was a mailing address; a post office box did the trick. Now we were Florida "residents," at least in spirit, able to receive telephone calls and mail. Unfortunately, in reality we still had a couple of months to wait for a roof over our head.

In Florida, natural gas is not a necessity as it is in colder climates, although a few homes have it. Ours was 100 percent electric, so that was one less worry. But of course we'd need water, and we ended up getting a land line phone for DSL internet access. Once we got the phone installed and working, it took me a long time to learn the phone number since I never called it or gave it out to anyone. I think I would have had a heart attack if it ever rang once we moved in!

The biggest challenge of all was finding a place that would write us a homeowners insurance policy. Apparently, the possibility of hurricanes makes insurers quite gun shy, even as far inland as Celebration. Couple that with the fact that we were new to Florida and would be commuting for a while before we were permanent, 100 percent of the time residents, and no one wanted to touch us.

The clock was ticking down to the closing date, and I really began to think that we weren't going to find insurance. I have no idea what would have happened, and thankfully I didn't have to find out. After calling dozens of agencies and posting frantic queries on the internet, I found an agency (ironically, located right in Celebration) that was able to get us a decent policy with a decent company at a decent price.

Our other challenge was the logistics of setting up a long distance closing. With all our visits to our house while it was being built, we had run out of vacation days again. We actually had one left, but we were saving it for the walk through, which had to be done on a weekday. We had thought about hiring a building inspector, but in all visits, the workmanship looked pretty decent so we decided we'd be safe doing it ourselves. There are a lot of construction horror stories that come out of Celebration, but oddly enough, most of them concern the higher priced builders and the expensive homes, not the modest little bungalows.

Just like the walk through, a closing on a Saturday is too much of a fantasy even for the home of Mickey Mouse and Fantasy Land, so we arranged to do it all via mail and phone. But the trick is, you don't really know the exact amount of funds that will be required at closing until something like 10 seconds beforehand. Then the money has to be wired over so the transaction can proceed.

I was getting a little nervous about making sure that everything was perfectly coordinated. But I was having some fun, too, as my husband and I were using our weekend visits to hunt for furniture for our new home. Since the model had been an exact duplicate, we knew the measurements and had a pretty good idea of what the rooms would look like. There were a few minor differences. For example, in the model, the front room was open, whereas it would have French doors in our home. The model had wood cabinets, but ours would be white. And the model featured garish wallpaper that would surely have awakened the dead if you'd brought a swatch to the cemetery, but our walls would be white just like the woodwork.

One day while we were poking around the model, a pair of woman waltzed in. They were apparently Celebration residents, and I don't know if they lived in estate homes or what, but they looked around the little triplex in utter disdain. One sniffed to the other, "I can't believe this is a house! I just can't imagine how someone could live in such a tiny place." I bit my tongue, comforted in the knowledge that Miss Snooty would probably drown next time it rained anyway because surely the Florida downpour would overwhelm her upturned nose. To this day, I still joke that we are the triplex trailer trash of Celebration (and I'm sure Miss Snooty would agree 100 percent).

In our travels, we had learned the location of the Florida Mall and the countless furniture stores leading up to it. That would take care of the main furniture for the kitchen, family room, and master bedroom. We also found the addresses of some futon stores located quite a bit farther away. We knew it would be worth the journey because we wanted a large selection. We planned on putting a futon in the front room and second bedroom to accommodate the house guests that almost instantly descend on every new Florida resident. We figured we could get everything ordered; in stock items could be held until closing, and we wouldn't be in a big hurry for things that had to be ordered from the factory, since furniture is notoriously slow. Many years ago, I worked for a furniture store, and "6 to 8 weeks" really translates to "You'll be lucky if you see it three months from now."

Our home was looking more and more "real," although we could no longer go inside it because it was complete enough to require the door to be locked. It was interesting to see how the outside facade evolved. We were told that it was originally going to be a Colonial style, but that it was switched to Craftsman for some reason. I'm glad, as the Colonials don't have a front porch, just stairs, which would mean I couldn't have the porch swing I'd always dreamed of. Then we were told that it would be gray with blue trim, but it ended up being beige with green doors. Then...oops!! Turns out the doors were supposed to be blue, not green, so they were abruptly repainted. Personally, I kind of liked the green, but it was probably some color-combination violation of the Celebration Pattern Book.

I ordered our window treatments in advance; I am very obsessive-compulsive about certain things, and temporary blinds drive me crazy. Thankfully, we found a blinds company that worked with our builder a lot, so they would be able to come in and do the measurements before we closed.

In order to decide the exact type of blinds we wanted, we drove around to other triplexes, checked them out, and took photos. I think I freaked some of their residents out. One lady watched me from her doorway, but she never actually came out to ask what I was up to. Maybe she thought I was some crazed tourist. I'm sure I looked like one in my rental camera, fanny pack firmly cinched around my waist and camera in hand. But seeing various window treatments in homes just like ours was a big help. We were able to get pictures that approximated almost exactly what I was envisioning.

As the closing date approached, it looked like the house would be ready just in the nick of time. There would have to be a final inspection in addition to the walk-through, and the timeframe was tight. We set up the walk-through, and hubby had a great idea. He decided to tape it so we'd never have to wonder, "What the heck did they say this valve does?" Now, it was just a matter of days...the video camera was charged and we were ready to get our first glimpse of our new home in its final state of glory.

Next time...Smile, you're on Candid Camera!

Learn more about Celebration on my website: www.celebrationinfo.com

The Long Wait

Now that we had finally purchased the perfect home in the perfect town, we were in for a long, long wait. Actually, it wasn't so bad because we weren't under any time constraints. We knew we wouldn't be able to move to Florida immediately and permanently anyway, so we had more patience than most new home buyers who are anxiously waiting to relocate.

It was a bit difficult to know that construction was going on 1500 miles away, and we couldn't be there in person to watch our "baby" grow. This was eased somewhat by our real estate agents, who mailed us occasonal progress photos, and to a kind neighbor-to-be who took pictures nearly every week, which he posted on a web page for us.

Every time he posted new shots, I eagerly logged on to see the vacant lot turn into a foundation, and then to watch the steadily rising walls. Once the structure was in place, it morphed from a skeleton to a roofed and fleshed out building that was starting to look like a real home. Inside, tile, carpet, and appliances were added it as it edged closer to completion. Exterior paint, and then landscaping, finally completed the picture.

We were also very fortunate to be able fly down for a visit every few weeks or so. I am a big fan of Priceline, as I don't mind letting William Shatner choose which hotel I stay at or which rental car company I use. I booked resort-level hotels in the Lake Buena Vista/Downtown Disney area for around $65 a night. I also snagged rental cars so we could drive around Celebration, poke around the construction site, and get to know our soon-to-be neighborhood a little better.

There was so much contruction going on in East Village that it had changed substantially every time we saw it. Some of the homes sprang up in what seemed like mere weeks. Where empty land had been when we initially signed our contract, we now saw houses with people living in them. Every now and then, we would see another family that, like ourselves, appeared to be visiting a place that was under construction, dreaming of a bright and not-too-far-away future.

Each time we visited, we brought our camera and took a new batch of photos. Between those and the website pictures, we had more photos of our house than some people take of their children. When we purchased our condo back north, we didn't have a similar sense of excitement. Even though we visited the construction site a few times, we never bothered to bring our camera. Sure, we were happy about buying a new place, but in a low-key sort of way. After all, we were only moving half an hour away, simply to be closer to our jobs.

We didn't choose our Midwest condo we fell in love with it; we chose it for convenience. We didn't find it through a set of cosmic circumstances. We found it after endless weekends of hunting for a place that was decent, roomy, and that fit into our budget. It met our needs, but there was no emotional attachment.

Celebration was different. This time, we chose the town, and even the state. We knew that our future home was the right place for us because of the way things had turned out. We already felt right at home in Florida, even while we were just visiting and living out of hotel rooms. When we were done visiting our house, we would drive around aimlessly in our rental car, learning the streets, the stores, and the neighborhoods. We also explored the various expressways, including I-4, 417, and 528.

In the past, when we visited Florida strictly for vacation, we had never rented a car. Still, over time, I had apparently developed a vague sense of direction from being there so often. I thought I would have no clue on how to get anywhere if I actually had to drive myself, but when I started driving, I was pleasantly surprised.

I quickly built a new sense of confidence as I learned the lay of the land. I was also getting used to Florida drivers, an eclectic mix of tourists, elderly people, and I-don't-give-a-damn locals. I got used to the fact that U-turns out of left turn lanes are legal, but it was much more challenging to learn to predict the behavior patterns of my fellow drivers. Apparently, if you are in the far right lane and want to turn left, it is perfectly acceptable to abruptly and without warning cut across all the lanes. Making a sudden stop in any lane is also fine, and even common. After all, it's hard to read your map while driving, and the people behind you won't mind the delay (not to mention slamming on their brakes). I soon became immune to these and other driving challenges.

Celebration has its own set of driving rules too. Apparently, in the local language, "Stop" means "Pause if you feel like it, but probably you should just rush through without slowing down." That's certainly how people react when they come to a stop sign in town. The posted speed limit is 25, but in reality it tends to be either 10 (lost tourists) or 50 (locals). Being a foolish Northerner, I abide by the posted numbers, which results in almost constantly being tailgated.

But all of the driving was enjoyable, and we learned more and more about Celebration, Kissimmee, Orlando, and the surrounding communities. Most people think of Orlando as Tourist Land, and they don't think of Kissimmee at all. But in reality, only a few miles away from all the Disney glitz and the many parasitic attractions, there are miles of cow pastures and farmland. It was a surprise to me to learn that Florida is prime cattle country.

We also learned about some attractions that most people never seen, or even here of, like the Disney Wilderness Preserve. We haven't made it there yet, but it's nice to know that there are places where nature still rules.

Even though our home wasn't done yet, we'd already started feeling like residents of Celebration. Every weekend we were there, we had lunch at the Market Street Cafe, and I battled the tropical heat with many scoops of ice cream from Herman's and iced coffess from Barnie's. We'd spent lots of time on the walking paths, and we'd visited every shop in the downtown area more times than I can count. It felt good to absorb that small-town atmosphere, and every time we visited, it simply reconfirmed that we had made the right choice.

Late August was the scheduled completion date, and time was inching along slowly but surely. As it loomed closer, I knew there were plenty of technical details to take care of.

Next time...Details, details, details

Learn more about Celebration on my website: www.celebrationinfo.com

A Disney-Style Ending

Since Disney is so closely associated with Celebration, I suppose it's only fitting that our story had a Disney-style happy ending. When we returned home to the Midwest, I started doing some research into Florida real estate contracts. In Florida, there is a very strict waiting period until a condominium purchase becomes final. Technically we were already past that period.

But the law also requires that the purchaser be able to review all the documents and restrictions during that period to help them make their decision. Oops! In our case, we had not been able to review all of the required material because of the missing binder.

They say there is a reason for everything, and now I finally saw the cosmic purpose as to why the covenants were never sent. By law, our waiting period had not started ticking until we picked up the binder, so we were still within the cancellation period. Somebody Upstairs was watching out for us!

Needless to say, we pointed this fact out to the condo builder. They really didn't have much choice; under the law, they had to allow us to cancel the contract and to refund our down payment.

We immediately signed a contract for the triplex unit in East Village. We knew that we wanted an end unit, and we had our choice of either side since none of the units in the building were sold yet. It was a hard choice, but we ended up choosing the right hand unit because it had a single garage (the other end would share its garage building with the middle unit, although each would have its own driveway and the individual garages would be separated by a wall).

The only sad thing was that the units had already been designated as "inventory homes," meaning that the options, colors, etc. had already been chosen. Thankfully, our unit was going to be done in all neutral colors (beige tile and carpet, white walls and cabinets), so that wasn't a problem. The unit we chose would also be the only one to have French doors in the front room, a feature that appealed to me. That room is normally left totally open, but I liked being able to close it off. If we had a lot of out of town visitors, it could double as an extra bedroom.

This was quite a change! In the space of three months we'd gone from not even being in the market for a new home to putting a contract on a condo long distance, and then to switching mid-stream and suddenly buying a house in the two-hour lapse of waiting for our flight. Whew!

Of course, at that point, our "home" was only a sand lot with a wooden marker and lots of deer tracks. But it was fun to imagine what it would be someday. The slated completion time was August, which was fine with us since we still had our home back north and no firm plans on what we were going to do.

Since the triplex model was identical to our future home, we were able to take plenty of photos and measurements to help us with our decorating plans. Now we would begin seven months of dreaming and planning for our Celebration home-to-be. With all the odd circumstances leading up to its purchase, we just knew that it was meant to be ours.

Next time...FL Culture Shock

Learn more about Celebration on my website: www.celebrationinfo.com

Finding Home Sweet Home

Now that we had made the decision to purchase a home in Celebration, and to do it sooner rather than later due to rising prices, we faced a new challenge. We had to find the perfect place while being stuck 1500 miles away. As a further complication, we wouldn't have any more vacation days for the next three months.

I am a "yard person" who loves to plant and tend flowers and create a nice little outdoor environment. I also love a porch or backyard swing, and maybe even a fountain and bird bath to round out my relaxation space.

Unfortunately, because we couldn't make an immediate, permanent move, we needed a place where the exterior ofthe buildings and the landscaping would be taken care of for us. On the surface, it would seem like a townhouse would be the perfect answer. I'd have my little patch of land, but a landscaping service would take care of the major chores and our association dues would pay for painting, roofing, and the like.

But although the townhomes in Celebration are lovely and huge (some with three full stories of living space, as well as a separate apartment over the garage), they have an enormous price tag, too. Since we had done no pre-planning, financial or otherwise, we were somewhat limited on funds, and the townhomes were out of our price range. There were some condos on which construction had just started, but when we were in town, there was no model yet. All that existed was bare land and and a few newly laid foundations.

Still, from the information we could glean via the internet, the condos seemed to be within our price range. I wouldn't have my garden or swing, but at least I'd have a little balcony where I could still put some type of fountain, some plants, and perhaps a couple of rockers. It might not be my dream home, but at least we'd have a place in Celebration.

The next step was to locate a Realtor. Being an internet person who does nearly everything online, I rapidly began looking up real estate agencies in Celebration and shooting out a barrage of emails. I was hoping to make a knowledgeable contact who could either confirm my choice of a condo or let me know if there was something else available that would be more appropriate.

At that point, my only knowledge of the different types of homes came from a brief visit to the Preview Center, and I was hazy on the concept of the different villages. I had no idea that there was so much informaton to absorb, and there was precious little available online. Thre are websites with lots of generalities, but nothing specifically aimed at newbies, and often the information is glaringly out of date.

Oddly enough, none of the real estate agencies answered my messages. I did eventually get one response, but unfortunately it was after we had already gone forward with a condo purchase on our own...but that's getting ahead of the story. I was really surprised to get only one answer, since we were a Realtor's dream: A couple who was already committed to moving to Celebration. The only thing remaining was to the select a home and sign on the dotted line. I doubt that commissions come much easier than that!

I was sorry that the Realtor who responded did so after we had already initiated the condo purchase on our own. We had really hoped to deal with someone local to represent our interests. It made me a little nervous to be so far away and handling everything via computer and the phone.

I did as much research as I could before proceeding with the condo purchase. Although I would have preferred to look at a model in person, it wasn't an absolute necessity. We knew we were moving to Celebration and we'd pretty much figured that we would have to go with a condo due to financial restraints. My husband and I prefer new contruction, so we were pleased that we'd be able to buy something brand new. All that remained was to choose a floor plan and location.

We contacted the builder directly, reviewed several floor plans via the internet and snail mail, and selected the type of builing we preferred. We liked the four unit buildings and knew that we wanted to be upstairs. Now it was only a matter of choosing the particular building location.

We weren't locked into a particular timeframe for moving in, and we knew that we didn't want to live right on Celebration Avenue because I hate high-traffic locations. Over the phone, we selected a building across from Spring Park, a few blocks off the main thoroughfare. Only one of the two upstairs units was available, so the choice was already made for us. We executed the contract, sent off the down payment, and our Celebration was one step closer to reality.

There remained only one slight glitch. I was really itching to see the famous "Rules and Covenants" that had achieved so much notariety in almost everything written about Celebration. I was told they would be sent to me along with our contract, and soon two thick binders showed up in the mail. One was full of condo restrictions, and the other...well, it contained the same thing! Instead of the covenants, we had received two identical copies of the condo documents.

How could I be denied?! Would I never see the list of rules and restrictions by which we were committing ourselves to abide? Perhaps the conspiracy theory people were right and the town really was patrolled by a gestapo. They didn't want me to know until it was too late and we'd already moved in. Then I'd wake up one morning to find my porch rockers gone because there weren't the right shade of white.

I made a few calls to the condo office, but I was put off each time. It's hard to make too much of a nusience of yourself when you are over one thousand miles away, so no covenants were forthcoming. I had to content myself with pouring over the property diagrams and trying to picture where our future home would be located based on my sketchy memory of the Spring Park area. I also wiled away the hours making photocopies of the floor plan and sketching in various arrangements of furniture.

Meanwhile, the New Year 2003 dawned bright (and cold, at least where we were), bringing with it a new round of vacation days. My husband and I planned a dual purpose trip to Celebration: visit our new condo, or at least the foundation and the sand lot where it would one day stand, and to finally get those precious and ultra-secret rules and covenants. It was hard to believe that on our last trip, less than three months earlier, we hadn't even been thinking about buying a home as the plane touched down in Florida. Now here we were with a new place under contract!

When we arrived in town, we were amazed at how much progress had been made on the condo buildings. Ours was still in its initial stages, but we were able to see some identical buildings that already had second floors in place. We poked through the contruction site, ignoring the warning signs, and snapped photo after photo like pround parents documenting the birth of their child. Then we picked up the missing binder...finally! The condo office was closed, but they had left it at a real estate office next door, so I still didn't get to meet the sales representative in person.

Alas, I was rather disappointed at the covenants, which turned out to be quite mundane. I was expecting strictness to the point of insanity, but they were pretty much what I would expect to find in any planned community. I know of trailer parks in the Midwest that have stricter regulations (one turned down a friend of ours because he owns a Harley and they didn't want "his kind" moving in).

We spent most of our time getting to know the greater Orlando/Kissimmee area, since it would soon be our home. At the end of our trip, we returned to Celebration a couple of hours before our flight to take one last look around. We had never managed to find the bungalow models on our first visit, so this time we were determined to locate them. Since bungalows are the least expensive single family homes, I was curious to see what a little more money would have gotten for us.

We had the vague knowledge that the bungalow models were on a street called Nash, but that could have been the moon as far as our directional sense was concerned. At that point, we were only vaguely aware of the fact that Celebration is made up of "villages" and that our condo would be in South Village. We wandered in the general direction of East Village, and although we didn't find the models, we did stumble across a bungalow Open House.

Since we didn't have much time to spare before leaving for the airport, we decided that the Open House would have to suffice. I went poking around the property while my husband, who is not nearly as enthralled with models as I am, starting chatting with the real estate agents. By the time I had made my way through the cute little home, he had told them what we were looking for. They were a husband and wife team, and the husband said, "I have just what you're looking for! Do you have time to take a ride?"

We're adventurous, and we still had a bit of time, so we figured, "What the heck!" We hopped into his vehicle and headed over to Nash, where he showed us an attached bungalow model. It was something I would have called a townhome, but that's not the proper term in Celebration-speak. Although we hadn't seen any information in the Preview Center on those particular models, we learned that there are triplexes and duplexes in addition to the free-standing bungalows. The model was an end unit in a cute little Craftsman-style triplex building.

As it turned out, this was just what we had been looking for. It was a nice little place with a back yard, as well as a tiny bit of land out front, outside maintenance was included in the monthly fee. The Craftsman model had a porch that was large enough for a swing, and I could fit in a couple of rockers too. Best of all, unlike the regular townhomes, the attached bungalow actually fit into our budget. It was a little more than the condo, but if we struggled a bit, we could swing it.

Next, we were shuttled into East Village and shown a large vacant patch of land where one of the last new-construction triplexes was scheduled to be built that summer. It was an absolutely super location, on a cul de sac across the street from a little park-like area. It was much quieter and less trafficked than the spot where our condo would soon be standing. The large wouldn't be large enough for a pool, but we were within walking distance of the newly constructed East Village pool, and Spring Park and Lakeside Park were only a short bike ride away.

We knew that the triplex would fit our needs almost to the letter. As I had suspected when I initially looked for a Realtor, the experience of a professional really came in handy. Unfortunately, it had come a bit too late. We were locked into the condo contract, which we had signed over a month earlier. The cancellation period was over, and we couldn't afford to lose the hefty down payment.

Were we doomed to live in the condo and to bike wistfully to East Village to gaze at the home that should have been ours for the rest of our days? Would I have to continually mourn just how close I had come to getting my back yard, flowers, and porch swing? Or would a bit of the pixie dust from nearby Disney World somehow float over and save the day?

Next time...a happy ending.

Learn more about Celebration on my website: www.celebrationinfo.com

A Spontaneous Decision

Celebration is a town like any other, not the magical, mythical place of popular lore. But there must be a bit of magic somewhere. How else can you explain the number of people who make a spontaneous decision to move here? Some literally give up their jobs, pack up their families, and move in with nothing more than the possessions they can cram into a moving van. I would have happily been among them, but for financial reasons, my husband and I had to take it a bit more slowly.

We didn't take the plunge until 2002, but Celebration has actually been around since 1994, albeit as a barren patch of ground with a sales trailer and the Ghost of Towns Yet to Come looming over it. I won't go into all the hoopla surrounding the initial sales kick-off and the lottery for the very first homes. There has been enough written about that already. Although it has reached mythic proportions, it has since been overshadowed by the kick-off of other, similar developments.

I had heard about Celebration for years, and somehow the idea of living there had always appealed to me, even sight unseen. Of course, both my husband and I are major Disney fans. We progressed from visiting Disney World once or twice a year early in our marriage to buying annual passes and flying out to Florida as often as possible.

When Disney Cruise Line was launched in 1998, we altered our passion slightly and became frequent cruisers, sailing half a dozen times a year or more. Our park visits dropped off as the cost-cutting measures began to rise and the effects at Disney World became more evident. Fortunately, the cruise line kept up the quality.

Even though we'd visited Kissimmee dozens of times, we'd never made it over to Celebration. I don't like to drive when I'm on vacation, so we always used a towncar from Happy Limo to get to our hotel. We stayed on Disney World property and relied on their internal transportation system to hop around to the various parks. For our cruises, we took a towncar to and from Port Canaveral, and we took the Mears shuttle for visits to Universal Studio and Islands of Adventure.

Since we were spending so much time in Florida, we often discussed the possibility of moving there for good. I am a wimp when it comes to heat, but my husband likes it hot and muggy. For him, the steamier the better. Each time we flew out for another visit, I would watch as the towncar headed down I-4 or 417 and the neighborhoods zoomed by. I saw stucco-sided condos and rows of cookie cutter houses with pools and Florida rooms. I wondered if one of those neighborhoods would be our future home, and I dared to dream of a quaint little Florida room with a swimming pool and a lush garden. But I always thought that the dream would be many years distant.

On one of our Disney cruises in late 2000 or early 2001, I chatted with a woman who lived in Celebration while we were both relaxing in the Tropical Rainforest sauna room. I told her I'd often dreamed of living there, but I was sure that it was far too expensive. She said, "Oh, no, the prices are quite reasonable!"

I guess we all have different ideas of "reasonable," but since she didn't define the word, I thought that maybe my impression was wrong. Who knows...maybe Celebration was at least somewhat affordable. She regaled me with stories of relaxing downtown by the lake in a rocking chair or enjoying the pools on a hot summer day. I filed all this information somewhere in the back of my mind. It wasn't a priority, but I knew that someday my husband and I would be taking a look at the "Disney Town."

As luck would have it, in October of 2001 my employer sent me to a conference held at Disney World, in the Swan and Dolphin hotels. My husband still had some spare vacation days, so he flew down to join me and we extended our trip over the weekend. I bid on Priceline for a hotel, and we ended up at the Marriott World Center. This meant that, for once, I was forced to drive.

We knew that the home office for Disney Cruise Line was located in Celebration, and with all cruises we were taking, we were quite curious about it. We decided to take a drive by and check it out. Since we were there, we decided to drive into town and finally see this quaint slice of Americana that people in the media seemed to either love or hate.

We spent some time driving around, just soaking up the character of the town. I'd heard the usual rumors about Celebration and how the home styles and colors were stringently controlled. This didn't jibe with the lovely mix of architecture that we saw, nor the beautiful gardens and the eclectic mix of yard decor. We saw everything from quaint gingerbread Victorians with homey porches to Spanish style mansions to a house that could have doubled for the Bates motel.

Many people claim that Celebration is a throwback to the towns that used to exist in the 1950s and 1960s, but I don't really think so. I grew up in one of those towns, and it was quite different. For one thing, Celebration's business and residential districts are quite separate. In the old neighborhoods, there was a corner store (and often a tavern) every few blocks so you never had to run too far for a newspaper, bread, or milk (and Dad could always stop for a quick beer on the way home from work).

Also, those old towns certainly didn't have common areas and parks like Celebration's. Sure, there was usually a community park, but not countless little spreads of well manicured public land every few blocks. The downtown district of those old towns had businesses like pharmacies, hardware stores, and mom and pop groceries that catered to the residents. Sure, Celebration has a Gooding's Grocery downtown, but it bears no resemblence to a traditional supermarket, and the other businesses are mostly geared to tourists.

No, Celebration is not an old town teleported forward in time. It is its own place, with its very own character and personality. The one parallel with the old towns is a strong sense of community, but that has nothing to do with the phyiscal make-up. I think that friendliness and community spirit are something people bring with them because it's one of the reasons that many of them move here.

After circling Celebration Boulevard and Celebration Avenue a couple of time, and being stopped by an endless parade of golf carts crossing the road, we found our way to the Preview Center. This was the place where you could get information on the various home types. It also featured an impressive model of Celebration and an enthusiastic promotional video.

Originally, the Preview Center was located in the "tower" building downtown, but by the time we came around, it had been moved to a house just off Celebration Avenue. The original building now houses a Bank of America branch.

The center is pretty much defunct now, as sales have moved over to Artisan Park, the last area to be developed, way down at the end of Celebration Avenue. But at that time, the center was still in full swing, and most of the model homes were located nearby.

We poked around the models, but when we saw the prices, I realized that the woman I met on the cruise definitely had a different definition of affordability than I did. Still, it was fun to check things out. We were hoping to see the bungalows, which are the cheapest single family homes, but they were located in Roseville Corner, adjacent to East Village. Since we had no idea where that was, we never found them. We just checked out the models that we could find on foot near the center.

We were told that a new development (which is what eventually became Artisan Park) was going to be added soon, and that although it would be aimed at people aged 55 and over, there would be no specific age restriction. It was going to have condominiums and townhomes, which might be closer to our price range, so we thought that perhaps we would return in a year or two to check it out.

We were glad that the new development was a few years down the road, since we weren't quite ready to make the plunge yet. Heck, before we'd come to town, moving to Florida was still a vague dream, perhaps as far off as retirement. But somehow Celebration had shifted that dream to a more immediate context. We had only visited, and we were trying to work out how we could move there sooner rather than later. We had no interest in looking at other neighborhoods. Somehow we instinctively knew that Celebration was the place for us.

We did some bumming around downtown, enjoying the lakefront rockers and marveling at the "old-fashioned" movie theater (only two screens), ice cream shop, and Art Deco-style diner. It was touristy rather than authentic small-towny, right down to the Muzak piped into the streets. But however corny some people might find it, we immediately fell in love. We spent some time on the walking trails, which lead out of the crowded, tourist-heavy downtown area and into the residential streets. We soaked up the atmosphere, and somehow the spell that had snared many others before us was taking over our rational brains.

By the time we had to leave to catch our flight home, we were trying to figure out how we might buy a home in Celebration as soon as possible. To this day, I still don't know how "retirement," which had moved to "a few years down the road," suddently became "right now." But somehow it did, and we've never regretted that spontaneous decision. I think a large part of it was that we realized that soon we'd be priced right out of the market. Even with new condos going up within a few years, I strongly suspected that their prices would be much, much more than the going rate in 2001 (indeed, time proved me to be correct).

So somehow, without even really discussing it, my husband and I made the decision that we were going to buy a place in Celebration, and soon. To heck with the fact that our jobs had us tied to the Midwest, not to mention that we had no idea how we might handle it financially. We're not poor, but neither are we independently wealthy, and we work very hard to finance our frequent vacations. And of course house hunting might be a bit of a challenge, since I had run out of vacation days for the year.

But we were determined not to let these minor hurdles stop us. Just when we least expected it, our quest to become Celebration residents had somehow begun.

Next time...hunting for a home long distance.

Learn more about Celebration on my website: www.celebrationinfo.com

Welcome to Celebration, Florida

Welcome to Celebration, Florida, where residents get free passes to Disney World but have to surrender their homes in 30 years. But it always looks homey, thanks to the Disney employees who are paid to walk dogs and the gestapo committee that enforces the hundreds upon hundreds of rules and regulations. It's such a lovely place that "The Truman Show" was filmed here, although the biggest movie comparison is usually "The Stepford Wives."

Not really!!

Sadly, the information above often passes for the truth about Celebration. All myths spring from a kernel of truth, and those silly legends are no exception. Celebration was indeed started by Disney, in the form of The Celebration Company, on former alligator-ridden swampland. Once upon a time, this land was owned by the Mouse, and gators were located here when they grew too large to live in the more populous sections of the Disney World resort.

Other than that, the rest is distortions and misconceptions that continue to be believed, despite the fact that control of the town is in the final stages of being turned over to the residents. Disney recently sold the downtown area, which consists of stores and apartments (which are now being converted to condominiums), although it still owns many land parcels that The Celebration Company is marketing for commercial development. Awhile back, it also sold the golf course to a private consortium.

I have some myths vs. facts on my Celebration website at www.celebrationinfo.com, and hopefully I will dispell many of them with my blog. There have been some books written about our fair little town, but they tend to be slanted to serve the authors' preconceived ideas. It's hard to give a lot of credibility to someone's opinions when they moved to the town solely for the purpose of writing about it and then promptly moved away. In these books, the authors repeatedly claim that they are impartial, but methinks they doth protesteth too much.

If you ever visit Celebration, rest assured that the people you see walking their dogs are real, genuine, living, breathing, non-robotic Celebration residents. The occasional dog poop you will see lying around, left by the minority of discourteous walkers, will convince you that the pooches are not Audioanimatronic either.

The 30 year myth comes from confusion with the Disney Vacation Club (DVC), which is a "vacation ownership plan" (i.e. timeshare) with a fixed ownership period. Those of us who live in Celebration own our homes and the land they sit on, just like anyone else. There isn't even a DVC resort located in Celebration. As of this writing, our only hotel is the Celebration Hotel, although there are many properties slated for future development as hotels, resorts, and perhaps even timeshares.

I wish that the "free Disney passes" myth was true, but alas, we Celebration residents must pony up the cash just like everyone else. Thankfully, we at least get Florida resident rates, but those are the same for everyone who lives in our sunny southern state. Even though we must pay for the privilege, it's wonderful to live so close to Disney World that you can decide on the spur of the moment to have dinner somewhere around the "world" in Epcot, run over to Typhoon Lagoon to enjoy the last couple of uncrowded hours, or catch Illuminations or Fantasmic. Even when you're not in the parks, you can still hear the distance echo of the fireworks each evening.

Celebration does have covenants that fill an intimidating-looking binder, but they are no more restrictive than any others you would find in a similar planned community. They cover common sense items, like not parking an excessive number of cars or huge vehicles like campers on the street for inordinate lengths of time or keeping your house in decent shape, with no junk littering your yard. They are also aimed at preventing a transient atmosphere by restricting leases to certain terms and preventing short term rentals.

The covenants are meant primarily to protect property values. You can review them in full before you make a decision to move into Celebration, and if you are not comfortable with the restrictions, you can always buy a home in a community that is more compatible with your tastes.

"The Truman Show" was filmed in Florida, but in a town called Seaside that is quite a distance away from Celebration, and quite different in character. It is an expensive resort town, and most of its residents are seasonal. While there are snowbirds in Celebration, the majority of people are around for most of the year.

As for the frequent "Stepford Wife" comparison, one look at my house and you'll know that's not true! Celebration is made up of an eclectic mix of people. It's probably one of the friendliest towns you could ever move into. In the midwest, we lived in the same condo building for almost a decade, and we got to know our Celebration neighbors more quickly in a few weeks than we ever got to know people we literally lived on top of for years.

That's a little background. Next time, I'll share why we decided to move to Celebration and our house hunt for the perfect place.

Learn more about Celebration on my website: www.celebrationinfo.com