Retirees John and Paula Bergmann, who were moving from Phoenix, selected a one-story floor plan in Windsong at Seven Hills just by seeing it on paper. More than the layout appealed to them. The Paulding County community provided easy access to I-75 to visit their kids and grandkids in Jasper in North Georgia and Michigan and to welcome visitors from out of state. John, who used to work in sales for commercial trucks, and Paula, who worked at the PetSmart headquarters, chatted about their home in the active adult community in Dallas.
Q: Did you downsize?
Paula: Our home in Arizona was a larger home, about 2,600 square feet. We had a pool and enough upkeep. Even though it was a ranch and had an open floor plan ... it was just more than what we wanted once we retired. We discovered the Hadley [a floor plan new to Windsong at Seven Hills]. We actually went ahead and purchased it just by looking at the paper.
John: The floor plan was what we were looking for in square footage and the layout for simple upkeep.
Q: What one room in the home stood out in this floor plan?
Paula: We liked the large master bedroom (14-by-15). A lot of times you don't get that when you downsize.
Q: How much furniture were you able to fit into the master bedroom?
Paula: We moved here with our bedroom set. It's a California king bed. The other item was an 8-foot armoire that has a TV in it. We needed two flat walls for that reason. This room did accommodate that. You're still able to have nightstands and a chair and even another side table in there, or you could put in another small corner desk.
Q: Is the floor plan suitable for entertaining?
Paula: What I like is the kitchen faces out. The bar is open to the living room and into the dining room, so while you're preparing food or whatever, you're still communicating with other people.
Q: Was it important to have lawn maintenance provided?
John: We had a list of criteria before we came out here. ... We wanted to have the ease of being able to leave the home because we have other family members up in the Michigan area. The grass cutting and the bush trimming will be left for Windsong Properties to take care of, which was a feature that I wanted. The small courtyard will be relatively easy for maintenance. We'll put in small plants.
Q: How did you downsize?
Paula: We did consign a lot of furniture [in Arizona]. You do a 50-50 split [of the profit] with the consignment shop, but it's still easier than a garage sale where someone wants to give you $50 for a bed that's in perfect condition. A computer armoire that we sold [for about $650] was a large, heavy item. We knew we didn't want to move it. That would have been hard to sell in a garage sale.
Q: How did the location appeal to you?
Paula: We are only 15 minutes from the freeway. We've already had three couples visit us on their way back from either Florida or the Alabama [Gulf Shores] area. It was very easy for them to locate the property.
At a glance
John and Paula Bergmann’s home, built in 2010 in Dallas’ Windsong at Seven Hills neighborhood, has two bedrooms, two baths and about 1,725 square feet. They purchased it in October. Windsong at Seven Hills has homes from the $180,000s to mid $200,000s.
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