Villages of Columbus - Columbus Square - Camden Place

[quote author="Chooby" date=1245403008][quote author="Shooby" date=1244763048]I have also woken up on many thursday morning trash days to throw out additional trash (I used to leave my garbage can out overnight). However, about three weeks in a row I found that one of the neighbors had throw all of their trash into my can, right up to the rim of the trash can. Three weeks in a row.

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That neighbor is probably one the affordable housing unit residents. Camden has many of those.</blockquote>


Haha, and chooby, you must be a white, middle aged house wife from south orange county.
 
[quote author="tkaratz" date=1245412767][quote author="Chooby" date=1245403008][quote author="Shooby" date=1244763048]I have also woken up on many thursday morning trash days to throw out additional trash (I used to leave my garbage can out overnight). However, about three weeks in a row I found that one of the neighbors had throw all of their trash into my can, right up to the rim of the trash can. Three weeks in a row.

</blockquote>


That neighbor is probably one the affordable housing unit residents. Camden has many of those.</blockquote>


Haha, and chooby, you must be a white, middle aged house wife from south orange county.</blockquote>




I"m guessing Chooby is a middle-aged Chinese or Korean 2G.



My experience is that it is not the "affordable housing" residents who care about overfilling their trash-cans, but the male Chooby-equivalent.
 
Until you live that stuff you'll never fully understand it. We had a neighbor that did that to us all the time. I'd go out in the morning and would have to go back in and wrap the garbage in a black bag, seal it, and put it next to my can because the same neighbor would always use mine for his overage. Then one time he put a bunch of tall wood in my can and his can was picked up and MINE HAD A NOTE ON IT AND IT WAS NOT PICKED UP! That's when I had it. I told him about it and he took his wood back and I told him not to put his overage in my can anymore. He gave me the "what do you care?" speech and I pretty much knew I was done with him.



Had another buddy just sell his condo because of loud neighbor. Constantly calling the cops (Fountain Valley), loud parties, dog barking, yelling, etc. It ended up not being worth it. Then there's my friend who moved her entire family out of state when her meth-induced neighbor was angry of her complaints and through a tire iron through her window one night. That condo also sold quickly.



Until you actually live it it's really easy to go ho-hum, uppity people.....and trust me, every one of you has your hot button...maybe it's trash, maybe inconsiderate people, maybe parking, garage-living, public drinking, risque dressing, dog barking, pitbulls without leashes (yes, I am singling them out because that's the kind of person I am) etc etc.
 
Well, I had my Vintage Design Center meeting over the weekend and I was appalled. The quality was awful unless you wanted their HIGHEST price stuff, the prices were outrageous, and the choices were poor. I was even more disappointed to find that they wanted 25% upfront, which basically makes it a wash, considering they are roughly 3-4x the price of Home Depot or Lowe's. The down payment is the same price as being free and clear through any other provider?! No way.



example: At Vintage, the ceramic printed tiles that we picked out as a possible choice at the design center for the tiled areas cost "X" to have done. At Home Depot, the actual stone tile equivalent (the pattern the ceramic was trying to imitate) would cost less than 1/3 "X" after installation. Yes, that means moving up to the real and more attractive looking stone is near the same price that Vintage wanted for their down payment for the printed ceramic tiles. OUTRAGEOUS.



Dont even get me started on the wood flooring prices.



For anyone interested in the last phase of Camden, do NOT use their design center. Get the minimum (free) stuff and just wait a few days before you move in while your private contractors or home-store contractors come in and do the job. Everyone warranties their work (despite what the Vintage people will pitch at you).
 
I guess they just need one sucker to blow their "incentive" 25K at the design center for it to be all worthwhile to Vintage. Definitely buy down the rate with the incentive money, do not use it for upgrades.
 
Good advice Mojo, my experience at Vintage was horrible as well. Just because they are builder referred they think they can charge a premium for everything. I got the standard carpet and tile during my meeting and the lady looked at me like I wasn't a worthwhile customer.



Even their carpet padding is ridiculously priced. I plan on getting wood floors in a few years from a private contractor.





Also, try applying the incentive money towards the principal. When I purchased, they allowed me to put the 20K incentive towards the end principal instead of buying down the rate.
 
Interesting... Our experience with Vintage Design was pleasent. Of course it's way over-priced, but they did a great install job. We were disappointed with the tile selection, but got exactly the wood flooring we wanted (distressed walnut).



Because they were so overpriced, we didn't choose Vintage for window coverings. We just spent $7k on Norman shutters for our Plan 3. We had shades up for two years before this.
 
Make sure you find out how much it costs to chip out all the base tile that vintage has to install in order for the occupancy permit to go through if you are going to have some of their products installed and redo some with wood. Or whatever. Or if you choose to have the no flooring option and have your own installed make sure that you find out about all the plumbing stuff because as far as I know when you remove all the toilets etc to install flooring it voids all the Lennar warranties etc. We also looked into the option of having flooring installed outside of Vintage. We were not thrilled with Vintage. And when we finally decided to just go through Vintage because of the huge hassel of having flooring redone we had to approve the tile we ordered before it was installed but we weren't allowed to look at the wood floor before it was installed which made no sense to us.







[quote author="MojoJD" date=1245473682]Well, I had my Vintage Design Center meeting over the weekend and I was appalled. The quality was awful unless you wanted their HIGHEST price stuff, the prices were outrageous, and the choices were poor. I was even more disappointed to find that they wanted 25% upfront, which basically makes it a wash, considering they are roughly 3-4x the price of Home Depot or Lowe's. The down payment is the same price as being free and clear through any other provider?! No way.



example: At Vintage, the ceramic printed tiles that we picked out as a possible choice at the design center for the tiled areas cost "X" to have done. At Home Depot, the actual stone tile equivalent (the pattern the ceramic was trying to imitate) would cost less than 1/3 "X" after installation. Yes, that means moving up to the real and more attractive looking stone is near the same price that Vintage wanted for their down payment for the printed ceramic tiles. OUTRAGEOUS.



Dont even get me started on the wood flooring prices.



For anyone interested in the last phase of Camden, do NOT use their design center. Get the minimum (free) stuff and just wait a few days before you move in while your private contractors or home-store contractors come in and do the job. Everyone warranties their work (despite what the Vintage people will pitch at you).</blockquote>
 
A couple of wood planks in our kitchen shifted out of place within 1 month of moving in. They also installed two different color sections of carpet on our second floor. At first we thought it was just the grain that was installed opposite in two pieces. We had to endur several appts, at least 4 just to have it remedied. The guy that came to spray and redye the carpet was nice but it was a hassel to move all the furniture and I could not be around the second floor for a while because i'm pregnant. Sucky! We had to be majorly inconvenienced because my husband had to stay home from work 4 days to remedy a problem that wasn't our fault.







[quote author="Perspective" date=1245731365]Interesting... Our experience with Vintage Design was pleasent. Of course it's way over-priced, but they did a great install job. We were disappointed with the tile selection, but got exactly the wood flooring we wanted (distressed walnut).



Because they were so overpriced, we didn't choose Vintage for window coverings. We just spent $7k on Norman shutters for our Plan 3. We had shades up for two years before this.</blockquote>
 
[quote author="Polarbecca" date=1245744048]Make sure you find out how much it costs to chip out all the base tile that vintage has to install in order for the occupancy permit to go through if you are going to have some of their products installed and redo some with wood. Or whatever. Or if you choose to have <strong>the no flooring option </strong>and have your own installed make sure that you find out about all the plumbing stuff because as far as I know when you remove all the toilets etc to install flooring it voids all the Lennar warranties etc. We also looked into the option of having flooring installed outside of Vintage. We were not thrilled with Vintage. And when we finally decided to just go through Vintage because of the huge hassel of having flooring redone we had to approve the tile we ordered before it was installed but we weren't allowed to look at the wood floor before it was installed which made no sense to us.</blockquote>


I thought all new homes had to have flooring installed, even if the cheapest, prior to handing over they keys?
 
[quote author="toph" date=1245792424]does vintage have bamboo flooring options?</blockquote>


Yes they do, but its also very overpriced. They have a very light, unstained bamboo there. ( I personally prefer at least a light stain to bring out the detail). We were considering it, but decided against when we thought about longevity of such a soft wood (well, its not really a wood).



The prices at Home Depot are pretty good. For example, Vintage quoted me near $2950 just to do one of the bedrooms (not the master) with the wood that we liked. I took the same sq. ft. estimate over to home depot and found the same quality engineered wood (same "hand scraped" texturing, same look) for ~$900 after installation.
 
[quote author="MojoJD" date=1245992492][quote author="toph" date=1245792424]does vintage have bamboo flooring options?</blockquote>


Yes they do, but its also very overpriced. They have a very light, unstained bamboo there. ( I personally prefer at least a light stain to bring out the detail). We were considering it, but decided against when we thought about longevity of such a soft wood (well, its not really a wood).



The prices at Home Depot are pretty good. For example, Vintage quoted me near $2950 just to do one of the bedrooms (not the master) with the wood that we liked. I took the same sq. ft. estimate over to home depot and found the same quality engineered wood (same "hand scraped" texturing, same look) for ~$900 after installation.</blockquote>


Quotes from places like Home Depot for installation will not include removing old flooring unless you specifically mention it. In fact, the cost for the labor for the tear down may be more than the cost for the labor for the installation. So, unless you really can have the house built with absolutely no flooring, the cost of removing it may be significant. The overall cost may still be less, but not as dramatically so as it appears at first glance.
 
Actually, the carpet install price (almost nothing) includes ripping up the old carpet and pad. Putting in wood where carpet is (ripping out the carpet then laying the wood) adds $0.35 per sq ft to the install price... not very much. So what, ~$55 bucks for small room I'm doing. Not worried about it.
 
[quote author="MojoJD" date=1246002632]Actually, the carpet install price (almost nothing) includes ripping up the old carpet and pad. Putting in wood over the carpet adds $0.35 per sq ft to the install price... not very much. So what, ~$55 bucks for small room I'm doing. Not worried about it.</blockquote>


Ok, that's true. I was talking about removing tile, not carpet. Carpet removal is easy and cheap.
 
some, not all. id say maybe 3 or 4 were affordables?



hopefully, my fiance and i will be approved for everything and we'll be one of your camden cohorts.
 
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