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Tag Archives: Clermont
Light Up Clermont 2013
For anyone in the Clermont/South Lake area, or who wants to come visit December 5-7 for this great annual event!
Light Up Clermont 2013
The Place You Call Home
One of the biggest questions facing us when we decided to make the move was where we wanted to live. We had narrowed down the city, but needed to decide between renting a house and an apartment. We selected the apartment, and this post will talk about where we are with that.
One of our readers had commented that it doesn’t matter where you live, as long as you are near Walt Disney World. Well, not quite. There are a lot of areas we would never move to, even if it meant being close to the Mouse. We wanted to live in a similar community setting as we had in Wisconsin, and while Clermont doesn’t quite fit the bill with that, it is a very nice area to live in.
Overall we have been satisfied with our apartment: the office and maintenance staff are wonderful to work with, and it is nice to live in a place where we don’t need to worry about lawn care, or pool care or pest preventative treatments. Over the past few months, however, we have been contemplating moving into a rental home due to a few different reasons. We are hesitant, however, because we have heard horror stories regarding a few rentals here, and we don’t want to move from a good situation into a bad one. It would also need to make financial sense; ie, we might pay lower rent, but we may have other expenses that we don’t here that would mean an increase in monies paid out.
So right now we’re kind of on the fence about it. We currently have bad neighbor issues, but we’ve also had that experience when living in a house in Wisconsin, so moving doesn’t necessarily erase that issue. We also would love more living space, as we lost approximately 700 square feet when we moved here. We would love to find a four bedroom home here to rent, with the extra bedroom being designated as a guest bedroom/den area/craft room. We don’t believe the electricity bill would rise significantly with more living space, as we need to run the air conditioner here more often than normal, as all our windows face only one direction, and unless its a fairly cool day, it doesn’t cool off the house significantly with no cross ventilation.
We have no regrets for moving into the apartments, as it provided security for us knowing that we had a relatively nice place to live. Once we left our house in Wisconsin, we were technically homeless until we arrived in Florida, and that is an unsettling feeling to have, even though we knew it to be temporary. Even if we do not make the move in 2014, we both feel that it be a change that will eventually occur, as we don’t anticipate apartment living for the rest of our lives in Florida.
Bucket List: #51-100
This is a continuation of our post from yesterday: another 50 items that made it to our bucket list before our move, and what we have accomplished so far. Our comments are in blue following the line item.
51. Enjoying the streetmosphere entertainment. We love Mulch, Sweat & Shears at the Studios. If you haven’t been able to catch their act yet, you must. Go do it. 🙂
52. Festival of the Masters Not yet. The weather didn’t cooperate last year.
53. Going to the Night of Joy We have not yet attended but definitely want to. This is another example of the noise level being way too loud for Ben.
54. Flower and Garden Festival Neither of us is into gardening a lot, but we enjoy walking through Epcot during Flower & Garden and taking it all in.
55. Holidays Around the World at Epcot We have not purposefully stopped and listened, but we have heard bits and pieces as we’ve walked through World Showcase. We’ve especially heard the Norway rendition quite a bit, as we passed it on the way to Candlelight Processional.
56. Sounds Like Summer at Epcot We have not attended yet.
57. The Candlelight Processional Last year Catie was part of an honor choir with Candlelight Processional and performed at Disney four separate days. We also attended one time after Christmas so that Catie could see it from a non-performer point of view. The narrators we’ve heard have been Neal Patrick Harris, Geena Davis, Amy Grant, Andy Garcia, and Jodi Benson. This year she will be performing once, again with narrator Neal Patrick Harris. I’m sure we will see it a few more times beside. We consider this a new tradition for us at Christmas time. It is absolutely beautiful and brings forth the true spirit of the season.
58. Finding a good Friday fish fry! No, we’ve found a place that may have potential, Wolfy’s in Leesburg, but we haven’t checked it out yet. Friday fish frys are just not the thing down here.
59. Visiting the Kennedy Space Center We went for the first time this March, and plan to go back in December when Nick and Jess visit. It really is a place where you want to be there early in the morning and stay until close, and then you still don’t see everything. We are looking forward to seeing the new Atlantis and Angry Birds exhibits.
60. Riding TTA during Wishes No, we haven’t done this since moving here.
61. Sit at each of the Parks and take time to “people watch” On occasion, especially when we’re at the Parks at close- it’s simply easier to let all the people pass before we head out.
62. MLB Spring Training No.
63. Pick a fresh Florida orange from a tree No, still would love to do this. We do pass orange groves on the way to Disney and love the smell!
64. Go swimming on a warm December day Ben & Catie have– two years ago they were swimming in the pool on Christmas Eve day
65. Enjoy a “work at home day” with Craig Petermann at Epcot No, the Internet connection is not reliable enough.
66. Take a family Christmas picture at WDW I don’t think we have a family picture, but we do have several shots of us separately. Something to make sure to do this year.
67. Earn all the Gowalla WDW stamps and pins Gowalla is no longer around.
68. Be one of “those people” checking in all over Lake Buena Vista with Foursquare Of course.
69. Move in to our new apartment in Clermont Yes!
70. Find the best pizza places in the area Stone Creek Pizza in Clermont, Napolis in Minneola are two of our faves.
71. Our first Saturday library visit to our new “home” library Yes, and we go every Saturday, though we still prefer our library back home in Wisconsin.
72. Stroll the Boardwalk Not yet.
73. Share a Kitchen Sink at Beaches & Cream with the family It’s definitely going to happen sometime!
74. Wild Africa Trek at AK No
75. Pirates and Pals Fireworks No not as of yet.
76. Backstage Magic Tour No.
77. Family Magic Tour No.
78. Get a haircut at The Harmony Barbershop on Main Street USA No, not yet.
79. The Pirates League with Ben No
80. Keys to the Kingdom Tour No
81. Walk through Fort Wilderness Campgrounds at Christmas to see the campers’ decorations This year, maybe!
82. See a University of Florida football game No
83. Stay in the Magic Kingdom until the wee hours of the morning to enjoy the peace No
84. Orange Bowl Parade on New Year’s Day No
85. Have a holiday sandwich at the Earl of Sandwich Believe it or not, we have not done this yet. We were going to last year, and then the place was absolutely mobbed. Poor timing on our part- but never went back later. Now they are available year round so there is just no excuse!
86. Have a diabetic friendly treat at Babycakes No not yet.
87. Go to Butterfly World No but I’m sure the kids would love it.
88. Swim with the manatees No but still think this would be awesome.
89. Explore Florida’s state parks We have not been in one yet 😦 Though we did find out recently that Lake Louisa rents out cabins to stay in, so this may be a possibility in the near future!
90. Visit the Everglades allligator farm http://www.everglades.com/ Nope
91. Hearing the word blizzard and knows it only refers to a waterpark or a DQ dessert! The nearest DQ to us is in Mount Dora, which is approximately a 30 minute drive from us. And no, we haven’t been to Blizzard Beach yet. But yes, it is wonderful not having to worry about snowy weather!
92. Go to Port Canaveral and watch the Disney ships leave port No but we want to do this. Actually we want to be on the Disney ship leaving the port……
93. Finding all of the local arts and crafts shows and fairs. We have not done this, but there is one coming up November 23-24 in Winter Garden that we may check out.
94. Getting to see the White Sox play in Tampa Bay. No
95. Being able to get more exercise by taking walks and biking the trails of Lake County year-round. No bikes yet, I’m not sure we will as Clermont is very hilly, but we do love taking walks around the area.
96. Enjoying the scenery of Florida, knowing that it will stay green year round, and not become brown and dead for six months out of the year. Yes, this is nice not seeing the deadness of winter, but we do miss the autumn colors.
97. Enjoy a hot dog at Casey’s whenever we want one BEST. HOT. DOGS. EVER.
98. Sit at Cosmic Ray’s and enjoy an entire Sunny Eclipse show You know, this was a must-do every vacation trip, but we have not been in there since we moved.
99. Take a yearly family picture in front of Cinderella Castle. We’re not consistent with this.
100. A family picture and mini-celebration immediately after we cross the Florida state line on our way to becoming Florida residents! We did not take a family pic, but there was great excitement in the car from the Florida state line all the way to Clermont!
So that’s our update to our bucket list. We could probably even make a new one, as we can think of additions to it that we didn’t include. What’s our your bucket list?
Getting To Know – Clermont
To kick off our new ‘Getting To Know’ series on the places you can look at moving to in Florida, today we have information from Greg Pabst. Greg and his family moved to Clermont in 2012 and I am glad to have his extra take on Clermont to add to what Jen and I can provide.
I thought I would share reasons why we picked Clermont since you already know everything else about the Clermont area. Orlando is very spread out and not compacted. It was important for us to find an area that would be as centrally located to potential work locations as well as Disney. Also our proximity to shopping, dining and area conveniences was important too. We don’t like living in the sticks, but we don’t like to be in the city either. Clermont offered this to us. Initially we were looking at Winter Garden, since it was closer to Disney but the housing cost more there and yards were very small with you practically looking into your neighbor’s window out your own. For the same price as Winter Garden we got a much larger house with nice extras like granite counter tops and large tile floors. Clermont did push my comfort factor regarding how far we were from Downtown etc, as a lot of tech and office jobs are in that vicinity or north of there (Maitland and Altamonte Springs etc). But, in the end it was worth the extra drive for the deal we got in Clermont. Since we are in southern Clermont (proper), near Hammock Ridge and 27, Disney is about 30 mins drive for us. We also heard of the growth that Clermont has recently undergone. We like areas that are growing and new. I was impressed by the road infrastructure improvements. I can’t wait to see new things popping up (ie. Like the new Hobby Lobby). Schools and crime rates were important to us as well. Clermont is much safer than other areas in Orlando. We were a little scared of the schools in Clermont as they aren’t as good as Winter Garden, but we have been happy so far with Pine Ridge Elementary. If you have any specific questions for me, I’d be happy to help out more.
You can reach out to Greg via Facebook: www.facebook.com/gregpabst. Greg also runs a great website for all of us Disney addicts to help us find each other; www.DISaddicts.com.
For more information on Clermont, please visit the links below.
http://clermont.govoffice.com/
http://www.clermontflorida.com/
http://www.city-data.com/city/Clermont-Florida.html
http://www.clermontdowntownpartnership.com/
http://www.southlakechamber-fl.com/home/
Clermont Area School Info
http://lake.k12.fl.us/lakeschools/site/default.asp (Lake County School District)
http://lake.k12.fl.us/Page/1542 (School Directory)
http://lake.k12.fl.us/site/Default.aspx?PageID=272 (School Zone Address Look-up)
2012 School Grades
School Types: 1 = elementary; 2 = middle; 3 = high; 4 = combination
| School Name | 2012 Points | Scale | Grade 2012 | School Type |
| CLERMONT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 495 | 800 | B | 01 |
| SAWGRASS BAY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 525 | 800 | A | 01 |
| EAST RIDGE MIDDLE SCHOOL | 635 | 900 | A | 02 |
| MINNEOLA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 512 | 800 | B | 01 |
| LOST LAKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 576 | 800 | A | 01 |
| CLERMONT MIDDLE SCHOOL | 600 | 900 | A | 02 |
| WINDY HILL MIDDLE SCHOOL | 573 | 900 | B | 02 |
| PINE RIDGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 533 | 800 | A | 01 |
| CYPRESS RIDGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | 634 | 800 | A | 01 |
| SOUTH LAKE HIGH SCHOOL | 998 | 1600 | B | 03 |
| EAST RIDGE HIGH SCHOOL | 1075 | 1600 | A | 03 |
| LAKE MINNEOLA HIGH SCHOOL | 552 | 800 | A | 03 |
| IMAGINE SCHOOLS AT SOUTH LAKE | 606 | 900 | A | 04 |
Wishes And Pixie Dust 