Wishes And Pixie Dust

Follow the journey of a Wisconsin family of 4 who relocated to the Walt Disney World area in July 2011

Category Archives: Apartments


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Attitude Makes The Difference!

As I was browsing through Status Shuffle on Facebook last night, I came across this status:  “Attitude is the difference between an ordeal or an adventure!” Even though I’m sure a move from Wisconsin to Florida was not the intent of whomever came up with that particular status, I realized that it really has become our philosophy.

Every single person who learns of our move says one thing:  “take me with you!”  Some express the sentiment that they could never do that themselves due to various commitments.  Moving across several states can be considered a huge ordeal.  There are so many considerations to think of:  hiring movers, the packing, researching the area, the packing, finding a new home to live in, the packing, and settling the children in schools, just to name a few.  Did we mention the packing?  :=)

As we have mentioned previously, we choose to think of our move as an adventure.  Things are falling into place nicely, but it’s not all a bed of roses.  There are so many uncertainties, such as where will we live, what do we need to pack in the car with us, what if the movers lose some of our boxes?  The packing itself is a huge proposition and not for the weak of heart.  We have given away a lot of our belongings, some we will not miss, some it hurts to give away.  Even though it’s just “stuff”, it’s funny how we can become so emotionally attached to things.  Mayflower has estimated our box quantity as 102 packed boxes; it will be interesting to see how many boxes we end up with.

Overall we are very pleased at the progress we have been making.  Our original goal was to be done with the downstairs by April 18th.  I don’t foresee that happening; the kitchen itself will probably take a couple weeks in itself, and we haven’t started there yet.  We pack as we have time, but we are not in super packing mode yet.  Our goal is to pack one box a day:  some days this happens, some days not.    We however feel very fortunate that we have had so much time to sort through things, discard what needs to be discarded, and put certain items on Ebay/Craigslist/Freecycle.  It ensures that we will be taking only those items that are meaningful to us.

As we approach our 100th day out, we have been working on a special blog post.  Be sure to come back and visit us to check it out!



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This ‘n’ That



We have been slowly moving along, and just wanted to share our latest thoughts and activities.

We did hear back from The Gardens at Citrus Tower, and right now they remain our #1 choice.  As we mentioned before, we really cannot apply until mid-May, so we are kind of in a holding position until then.  Our original plan was to apply at all three complexes in May, visit them all once we arrive in Clermont on July 25th, and then make our final decision. However, all three complexes do require an application fee, as well as a deposit.  The deposit is non-refundable if we choose not to live there.  In the interest of not throwing money away, we have decided to make our decision here in Wisconsin, without physically viewing the apartment.  We realize this does pose some risks, but we feel we can get a fairly good feel from the websites, we have friends in Orlando who have promised to scope out the area for us, and we go with the realization that we can always move in twelve months if we’re not satisfied with either the neighborhood or the apartment.  We will feel more secure leaving Wisconsin knowing that we have an address we are moving to.   We will probably have to stay in a hotel in the Orlando area for a few days, if for no other reason then we have to wait to get beds delivered.  We are looking for feedback on the best place to buy beds in the Clermont area.

We are slowly packing up our belongings, and our new goal is to pack one box a day.  If we do more, great!, but the minimum is one box daily.  We average about one Goodwill trip per week now.  Downstairs we are pretty well at the point where most of what is left are things we are bringing with us.   Mark is working on moving our music CDs over to our external hard drive, and we are both trying to duplicate our videos to DVD.  Our Disney videos we will need to make a decision on, as they are write-protected.  We may look into re-purchasing them over the next four months, and only saving the ones that are currently not available on DVD.

Our second car is listed on Craigslist, and we have an interested party coming by to look at it this afternoon.  If all goes well, this will allow us to pay off the loan on our other car, plus have a little extra to bank.   We’ll go back to being a one-car family, but with Mark working at home full-time, it’s not too much of an inconvenience for us, and it will save us approximately $150 per month.  It will also save us on our renewal fees for AAA, coming up in June.

It really is amazing to see how God is blessing our family with every aspect of this move. It’s exciting to see how all the details are coming together nicely, and at times even better than we expected.  We really feel Florida is where we are meant to be, and while we will miss certain aspects of Wisconsin, we are so looking forward to creating new memories and experiences in Florida.  In some aspects, it’s difficult to believe that two months have passed since we first made the decision to move.  It’s hard to wait four more months, but we both feel it will be here before we know it.

Thanks for following along,

Mark and Jen


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A place to live

After years of living in rental housing, we have decided that our first choice in housing once we move to Florida is an apartment complex.  We don’t want the responsibility of lawn care, and we have discovered that some apartment complexes do included utilities in the rent.  One thing that has surprised us is that the asking deposit is a lot less than expected: most only require $200-$300.  (Our current security deposit is equal to one month’s rent). Mark is the guru behind our apartment searching.  He has done all the research in finding different apartment complexes, through craigslist postings and internet searches.  We have narrowed our search down to three different apartment complexes, all located in Clermont:

Cagan Crossings

Cagan Crossings is an apartment community located four miles west of Walt Disney World in Clermont.  It offers a “town within a town” setting, including a library, restaurants, and even an old-fashioned ice cream parlor.  Everything is within walking distance of your apartment.  Utlities are not included; however currently they do offer either a flat screen TV or $500 off rent upon move-in.   A washer/dryer is not included but can be rented for $35 per month.

Village at East Lake

The Village at East Lake offers 3 bedroom apartments within walking distance of favorite stores and restaurants.  No utilities are provided here as well, but they do offer move-in specials.   Water and trash was estimated to be approximately $35 per month, which is a pleasant surprise:  we are currently paying $130 per month, and no we do not use an excessive amount of water!    The water rates here in Fond du Lac are outrageous.  Washer and dryers are included in every unit, and the website makes the claim that the laundry rooms for the 3 bedrooms are larger than in most homes.

The Gardens at Citrus Tower

The Gardens at Citrus Tower offer ceramic tiled floors, gourmet kitchens and valet trash Monday-Friday.   Washer and dryers are included in every unit, and their website offers a fun feature where you can virtually place your furniture into their floor plan to make sure everything fits.

All places state that we need to wait until mid-May before submitting an application.  We are waiting to hear back from The Gardens of Citrus Tower, but have talked with the other two property managers.  Both Cagan Crossings and The Village at East Lake do confirm that we will be able to move in early, before August 1.

We would love to hear feedback if you have personal experiences with these complexes, or know of one that we should consider.  We are not totally ruling out renting a home from a private party; we are keeping our options open, but we’re leaning towards one of these three complexes at the moment.


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Itinerary

As I listen to the freezing rain hitting against our house, it feels weird knowing that this is our last winter in Wisconsin.  While this is one of the awesome things about our move (no more brutal winters), it also hits home that we are leaving everything we know.  The second half of Ben’s IEP meeting was today, and as team members left, individuals I have known for years, it occurred to me that I would probably never see them again.   It’s a bittersweet feeling knowing that we are achieving our dream, but with it comes the cost of familiarity of our surroundings, in both material possessions as well as friendships.

We have set our itinerary for our trip down and wanted to share it here.  When we drove down to Walt Disney World in 2009, we had three drivers and looking back, we pushed ourselves by driving far more miles in a day than we should have.  In July we will be at two drivers, and because we are looking at this as an adventure and not a marathon driving experience, we will be taking three days to arrive in Clermont. All of our hotel reservations (except the arrival day in Orlando) have been secured, using our AAA discount.

Thursday, July 21 :   As the movers will arrive by 8am on Friday, July 22nd,  we decided the best option is to spend the evening in a hotel in Fond du Lac.  Today will be spend finalizing any last minute details.

Friday, July 22 :  Our goal is to leave Fond du Lac by 5:00 pm and spend the night in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.  Our original thought was to spend a second night in Fond du Lac and leave early Saturday morning, but decided that this at least gets us to the Illinois border and a jump start on our travels.  We estimate the movers will be completed by 1:00 pm, and a 5:00 departure time allows us to make sure the house is in check-out condition, with still time to deposit the security deposit check in the bank (that we’ll get back from our landlord).

Saturday, July 23 : We will leave Wisconsin by 9am, travel through Indianapolis by approximately 2pm, and stay the night in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Sunday, July 24 :  We plan to leave Kentucky and enter Tennessee by 8:30am.  We hope to be able to stop along the way and take scenic pictures of the landscape.  We were awed by the beauty of the mountains, and are looking forward to this part of our journey again.  We will spend the night in Lake Park, Georgia.

Monday, July 25 :  Our goal is to arrive in Orlando by 2:30pm.  We have not yet booked the hotel reservations for this night.  Our original intent was to stay at an extended-stay hotel for a week while we finalize our housing plans.  However, Mark and I have narrowed down three apartment complexes that we really like, and one in particular we may be able to move into before August 1st.  If so, this would affect how many nights we need to stay in a hotel, so we are waiting before securing those reservations.

We are really looking forward to the drive down to Florida.  As a family, we love taking road trips:  just driving to a new city within the state that we haven’t been to before with no expectations of what might be there.   We hope to be able to do a little more of it this summer before we leave Wisconsin, but we also have to be mindful of rising gas prices, and the upcoming expenses we will have for the trip down to Florida.

Thanks for following along!

~Jen