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ANDREA IS UPDATING HER OWN FACEBOOK!!!!

She will laugh at me for this, but I am actually crying from happiness ♥

She's got all her tubes out and hoping for a catheter removal next, graduating from popsicles to baby food and lying to the doctors about feeling "faboo" so they'll let her go home.

:D

:D

:D

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

sandramort.livejournal.com

I don't read her lj, and her fb is locked, but TG she's feeling better. Parents of little kids and little kids should be exempt from scary health problems. *sigh*

From:

noelove.livejournal.com

AYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BEST NEWS EVAR!

From:

mrs-mazzei.livejournal.com

Hi Tina, I'm coming out of lurkage to ask a question :)

Aside from my sister, you are the only person i "know" that lives in Homestead. My husband and I are looking to buy a property down south and would like suggestions from a local. Are you familiar with any of the new construction that has gone down in the last few years? Can you suggest any communities that would be nice? I went to a few places off of Eureka earlier this week and was not impressed with the neighborhood (kinda shady).

I understand if you are too busy to reply to this, or are weirded out by my randomness... but I figured it was worth a shot :)

Thanks,
Nicole

Oh, and it's really great to hear about Andrea! I don't know her, but I read about her situation here and had been praying for her and her family.

From:

altarflame.livejournal.com

Hi Nicole. I remember your icon :)

Personally, I hate all the new construction - you're talking about places with no windows on the sides of the houses because they're only 4-10 feet apart. MASSIVE HUGE (identical) houses with postage stamp size lots they completely fill. Also there is always something down here (chinese drywall, bad roofs, floors peeling up) that surfaces about new places...which I wouldn't trust in a hurricane. After Hurricane Andrew, all the new stuff was leveled and the places from the 50s were still standing there. There is a reason nobody ever built two story houses before the last 5 years when all these Lennar prefab neighborhoods started popping up everywhere.

Anyway, that is my opinion! I'm sure to some people it is a dream come true to get that kind of square footage and ceiling height...you do want to get a place that has already filled up, though, as sometimes really nice looking brand new neighborhoods turn into shady areas within a couple of years.

I think the best new construction is probably Waterstone. It is really carefully maintained and regulated to stay safe and pretty and all, there are tons of pools and playgrounds over there, and shopping and food and even a charter school. It is kind of like a city unto itself. It's between 8th St/Campbell Dr and Biscayne Blvd, fyi...sprawling as all get out.

Personally, I like the area within the rectangle made by Krome Avenue, 15th street/Kings Highway, Redland Road, and Bauer-ish. I don't know if you feel like google mapping to see what I mean, but you find a really great lot of places in there - old coral rock and even conch houses mixed with stuff from the 50s-80s, big yards, friendly people, not much crime at all and you get things like the Fruit and Spice Park right there. It's more "manicured" than most of the Redlands, but still more rural and spacious than most of Homestead, and there are sidewalks in a lot of places. This is the area the kids and I ride our bikes in most often. You're very close to a lot of fruit stands, veggie co-ops, etc, and there are some avocado groves mixed into the neighborhoods.

My sister lives in The Villages of Homestead, which is an old neighborhood where most of the Homestead police and several firefighters live. They have walking trails, 2 lakes full of ducks with a couple of little beaches, yards, community pool, etc. Very active association and a newsletter going out. I don't like it for us because they are the non-updated kind of older houses with really small square footage (like 1200 would probably be average, though there are a few massive ones), tiny bathrooms, etc - but they're all very nice looking, it's a super landscaped area. I can't stand HOAs and that is one, but Laura and Frank consider it insurance that their neighborhood will stay good. I consider it "You can't have chickens and have to ask permission before you plant anything" ;) The Villages is really close to US1 and a highway on-ramp without actually bordering any of that, it's also near the big Walmart shopping center and BJ's and all that. It's right between Canal Dr and Palm Dr.

Does this help at all? I can step further outside of my own preferences if you like, or tell you about clustered neighborhoods further out in the REDLAND-Redlands that are great but require a lot more driving. Homestead-proper, like Miami, is weird in that the great neighborhoods butt right up against cracktown a lot of the time. I can drive in one direction for five minutes and be in farmland, another and be in a really ritzy spot, or a third and be in a super poor drugged out neighborhood.

OH! If you drive west on 15th/Kings Highway there is this neighborhood on your right, pretty far out, that is really unexpected. I consider it kind of too close to some shaky new territory and a little far from everything for me, but it's really nice houses and you always see moms walking preschoolers around on trikes and tire swings in the front yards and all that. I forget the name of that subdivision, if you approach it from certain angles there's a big wall with the name on it...if you're interested I can ask Grant about it.

From:

altarflame.livejournal.com

I forgot to mention this, but further east on Canal Dr, adjacent to the Villages, is Keys Gate, which is the original Waterstone, sort of. HUGE sprawling place with neighborhoods for different budgets and very active busybody HOAs, but more secure - lots of gates to go through and security guards and all that. There are some low prices in there right now for the first time. It is a big house/small lot kind of place, but not to the extent the NEW-new construction is, and they also have a charter school that is pretty well reviewed, and their own brand new fire station and pools and all that. It wraps around in an L shape and ends by the new hospital, where there is a lot of shopping (Michael's, Bed Bath and Beyond, Sports Authority, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, movie theater, Panda Express, etc etc). Key Gate and Villages of Homestead places for sale/rent are usually represented as such in the paper. (Waterstone too). I think where I live and where I like (not necessarily the same) is considered "old Homestead" bordering on Redlands. The former mayor and some school board members and council people live around here, too. Personally, I am not interested in another payment and a bunch of rules from an HOA. But I'm a weirdo with kids with dyed and mohawk'd hair so whatever.

One thing to ask about is what electric company people are on. FPL is a MUCH MUCH MUCH lower bill that City of Homestead (which I have). I'm talking $200+ difference easy. My bill for my 2550 sf house in the summer is around $450-520 per month, and we keep it at 74 and have low ceilings. We also have pretty uninsulated french doors all over the place. But my father in law deals with $400 a month in the summer 4 blocks away, on a smaller place with better insulation.

Ok, TOO MUCH INFO -:p