Celebration Life

The case of Emily Grace, a 45-year-old New Jersey woman reported missing from the New York area since August 1, took a local turn last week. Employees at the Celebration golf course reported finding some of her personal effects, including a debit card belonging to her.

Then, from a release by the Celebration Safety Committee today, a tip came in today indicating the caller had seen her in the Celebration area, but that Osceola County sheriff deputies have been unable to locate her at this time. There was a Sheriff’s helicopter flying over Celebration earlier this afternoon, but don’t know if it’s related.

According to the Facebook group set up to find her, there is no evidence of foul play, but there are people that love her and miss her and want to ensure she’s OK.

As of this evening, there are 232 properties for sale here in Celebration, according to the Mid-Florida MLS. Here are some key statistics:

• Eight properties are less than $100,000!
• The least expensive single family home is a 3 bed/2ba single family home in Celebration’s North Village, offered at $219,000
• There are 51 homes listed between $100,000 and $199,999
• There are 45 homes listed between $200,000 and $299,999
• There are 38 homes listed between $300,000 and $399,999

These prices represent excellent opportunity to live in the groundbreaking new urban community of Celebration, FL. Most of the homes are located within a 20 minute walk of the downtown area, a vibrant shopping district with unique shops and restaurants.

If you’re not ready to buy but are still interested in living here, there are 50 homes on the MLS available for rent, with rates ranging from cosy garage apartments to a $5800/mo 6 bed/5ba estate home with 5865 sqft.

Feel free to reach out to us if you’d like free, detailed information on what’s currently available.

It’s unfortunate that it takes a storm rolling through for it to happen, but it was actually a pleasant evening. October can’t happen soon enough.

In case you haven’t noticed, it’s part of the Florida culture to complain about the heat.

The grass is not happy. We inherited a nice chinch bug problem in the back yard when we bought the house in February but that was taken care of with insecticide and new St. Augustine plugs. Still, we’re struggling with a variety of weeds.

By comparison, nearby lawns are not only free of brown patches, but also dense and green. I want that! We finally bit the bullet and signed up for a lawn pest service. They’ll come every other month to spray and fertilize. It’s not cheap, but on the other hand, neither is fertilizer. We’ll see how it goes.

As you’re suffering through the sweltering summer heat (and eye-popping electric bills), remember this: for the last 30 years, the average March high temperature for Kissimmee was 79 degrees, with an average low of 55. For November, the average high was 79 with an average low of 57.

It gets better from here, I promise!

Courtesy flickr user rcbodden

From July 23 to 25, Celebration becomes a veritable Who’s Who of Survivor stars, with some Amazing Race and Big Brother people sprinkled in there for good measure.

From CelebrationTownCenter.com:

Come meet the stars of the hit reality shows “Survivor” , “The Amazing Race” and “Big Brother” as a part of this year’s Summer Sidewalk Sale in beautiful Celebration Town Center and participate in the “Sales” Survivor Treasure Hunt July 23rd through the 25th.

On Friday, the Sidewalk Sale kicks off with a “Sales Survivor: Treasure Hunt”. Visit the restaurants to get your “treasure map” and use the clues to navigate through Celebration Town Center to uncover the answers. One “Sole Survivor” will walk away with $500 worth in cash and prizes. Continuing on Friday a special VIP sponsor party will take place at The Mona Lisa Suites Hotel with all the cast members’ on-hand for pictures autographs and more.

On Saturday, a special autograph signing will take place in Downtown Celebration from 4:00-6:00 PM and a special “Survivor Party” at the Celebration Town Tavern hosted by comedian Dean Napolitano will be held that evening with all proceeds from the party and autograph signing to benefit Give Kids the World Village. On Sunday, the Sidewalk Sale continues and it will be the last day to return your completed treasure maps to be eligible to win.

That link also has a list of everyone scheduled to appear, including favorites Jerri Manthey and Richard Hatch. This is a great charity event for Give Kids the World, so if you’re a reality TV fan, Celebration appears to be the place to be this weekend!

Article: WSJ.com: A Walker’s Guide to Home Buying

For a few years in the early 2000′s, I lived in South Tampa and worked in central New Jersey (Somerset County). Monday mornings I woke up bright (well…) and early, hopped on a plane, and was to my cube in Raritan by lunchtime. On Fridays I’d head to Newark around lunchtime, catch the 2:50 to Tampa, and be back home in time for happy hour. Rinse, repeat. During the week I was staying in a rented room in Stewartsville, about 35 miles from work, which took anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour each way. Point is, there was a lot of time spent in cars and planes. Enough time to know that I didn’t want to do it any more.

When presented with the opportunity to move to either Tampa or Orlando, there wasn’t much debate. We chose Celebration. Within a 25 minute walk, or 10 minute bike ride, I can visit my choice of banks, grab a Starbucks coffee, drop the son off at the K-8 school, work on an MBA, drop off drycleaning, check my PO box, get a haircut, have pad thai or sushi, see a movie, or visit a friend at our hospital. And most Celebration residents live closer to the downtown than we do.

I’ve lived in Florida for 30+ years, cumulatively. This degree of walkability is not easy to come by. Yes, it’s factored into the real estate prices here in Celebration, but to some degree that investment has been recouped in the form of fewer fillups (and lower dependence on oil), lower auto insurance premiums, reduced chances of getting in an accident, and improved health through increased exercise.

And if it means I spend more time enjoying the outdoors with my family, then it’s priceless. Hopefully others will discover this, too.

For those that are into the Twilight books and movies, I noticed this morning that the AMC Celebration 2 is showing the Twilight saga tonight starting at 6:30. From the AMC website:

Relive the epic of Bella, Edward, Jacob and all your favorite TWILIGHT characters at THE TWILIGHT EXPERIENCE at AMC Theatres at 6:30pm on Tuesday, June 29, 2010.

Each $30 ticket includes:

1. Admission to THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE
2. Admission to THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON
3. Admission to TWILIGHT
4. $10 AMC Gift Card
5. A commemorative event-style lanyard, while supplies last

Here’s an interesting item. It’s not strictly Celebration, per se, but has enough similarities with here that I’ll include it here anyway.

The Walt Disney Company announced today the start of pre-sales for Golden Oak. “a one-of-a-kind luxury residential resort community offering the unprecedented opportunity to purchase a home at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida” (from the press release).

It’s the “on property” aspect of this that I find most interesting. For those of you familiar with the layout of Walt Disney World property, this is just east of Fort Wilderness, so it’s really quite close to everything Disney.

I won’t recite the press release verbatim — you can read it here if you’d like — but the bullet points are:

• Single family custom homes priced between $1.5 and $8 million
• Fewer than 30 to start, with completion in 2011
• Full ownership by means of deed
• Gated
• Eventual footprint of 980 acres, about half of which is conservation area
• Residents will have access to amenities at a previously announced Four Seasons
• Total build-out plan is for 450 homes
• $25k refundable deposit in first-come order

As a resident of Celebration, another Walt Disney “Imagineered” community, I’ll be interested to follow the progress of this new development. What are your thoughts? Disney’s a smart company and has done its homework, but is there pent up demand for this kind of development? What problems might you foresee?

New signs went up along all the boardwalks between East Village and Downtown. It may be other places, too, but this is where I go.

Don’t know what prompted the move, but it has the faint odor of lawsuit avoidance.