In Love With Florida And Community Living By Len Bonifield

August 15, 2006, marks a special date for my wife and me. We moved as year round residents to our manufactured home in north Lakeland on that date 10 years ago. We had purchased our home the previous year, but were snow birds that first year.

I can remember in years gone by, living up north, I vowed that I would NEVER live in Florida. That bug-infested place with only two seasons: hot and humid and hotter and more humid. Well, let me tell you we have fewer bugs than we did in NJ, just outside Philadelphia. The mosquitoes in NJ grew to the size of your fist. We had termites, in spite of having bug and termite control monthly. The hot humid weather in Southern NJ was equal to or worse than what we experience in Central Florida. Sure the traffic in our area in January, February and March is heavy and bad but in NJ if there was an inch of snow, traffic stopped and everyone was told to go out and buy bread and milk. We rarely saw snow plows when it did snow.

I personally love the Florida weather and I don't miss the snow, the tornados or the four seasons. I love the summer heat here in Florida and if it gets too hot I can go inside my air conditioned house. I do not like those few cold days we have in January, February but at least I can play golf almost every day of the year. Yes, I am in love with Florida, the climate, the people, the conveniences and all the things to do.

I am also in love with manufactured housing. Our home, a double section with added-on sunroom, extended shed has about 1,850 square feet of living space. It is sited on a small land-lease lot and I don't have to mow the grass. We have made our home as secure as possible against hurricanes with inspected tie-downs, stabilizers, lightning rods, double pane windows with security film, cable tie-downs on our car port to secure it during storms, and a single membrane roof that I am told will withstand winds of 110 miles per hour. Our home has withstood a number of hurricanes and severe thunder storms over the last 10 years and we have been fortunate that not once have we had any damage.

This home has more square footage than the rancher we owned up north and costs less than 50 percent of our northern home. Our utilities are less than what we paid up north. The only fly in the ointment is our homeowners insurance cost, considerably more than what we paid up north. We built our home in NJ, a tract home, and we had fewer options to change it the way we wanted than we did with our manufactured home. Up north we had a beautiful kidney shaped brick patio that was 40 x 30 feet that we were able to use from a practical standpoint about two to three months a year due to weather.

We love community living. We live in a large manufactured home community that now is approaching 1,400 homes and growing. When we moved in 10 years ago there were about 550 homes, so we have watched it grow. While growth has changed the personality of our community somewhat it is still like living in a small town. In the 10 years we lived in our last home up north we barely knew our neighbors and no one seemed to care. Neighbors came and left as they moved on. If someone on the street passed away or was sick we rarely knew about it. Here in our community if someone is sick or dies I guarantee that the word passes around quickly and there will be help at the front door, willing hands to do whatever can be done to make life easier for you. Community living brings together people from every walk of life, from truck drivers to business executives, but no one cares what you did before you retired as now you are all in the same boat living life to its fullest for the remaining years.

It is hard to describe the social aspects of community living. There is so much to do if you want to be involved. While every community is different they all try to have social functions to bring everyone together: Dances, dinners, pot luck, bingo, outside entertainment and more. In our community if you can't find something to do it is your problem, not the community's. While activities from golf, tennis, the pool, etc. are important it is the feeling of belonging, it is knowing that there are many people you will become friends with, you will socialize with, people who will care about you.

Yes, Aug. 15, 2006, is a special day as we will begin to work on the second decade of our love affair with Florida, manufactured housing and community living.

Send questions or comments to Len Bonifield, 2914 Dollar Bonnet Lane, Lakeland, FL. 33810-2910. Or e-mail to elb@gate.net.

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