Fun Things to do with the Family to Keep you Moving

Posted on: October 5th, 2011 by admin No Comments

One of the keys to healthy living is to keep moving. Focus on activities instead of exercising and it will be more fun for the entire family. Kids in particular don’t need exercise routines. They just need to move. Here are five great ideas.

  • Go to the beach. We have some of the best beaches in the worlds right in Pinellas County. Bring toys such as balls, frisbees, and even shovels and buckets to make sand castles.
  • Ride Bikes. If you don’t all have bikes consider renting or borrowing. The Suncoast Trail in Pasco County is a great way to get out as a family and exercise and enjoy the view. And it is protected and safe from vehicular traffic.
  • Picnic at a park. Explore a local park whether it is our beach parks or wildlife refuges there is plenty for everyone to see and do. Hiking, canoeing, kayaking, biking, even horse back riding. These are all activities that can be enjoyed together as a family.
  • Stay Home.  Set up a scavenger hunt in your back yard, play hide and seek or just go for an exploratory walk of your own neighborhood. Enjoy the community amenities such as the pool or playground.
  • Swim. Whether it’s the community pool, a friend’s pool or your own pool swimming is great fun and great for you.

So get off the couch and see what there is to do and remember just keep moving. It’s good for the body and good for the soul.

Growth in Health Care in Tampa Bay Creates New Home Demand

Posted on: May 25th, 2011 by admin No Comments

One area in Tampa Bay that thrives is the health care industry. With people living longer and northeners continuing to flee cold weather for the sunshine of Florida, health care needs continue to rise. Tampa General has plans on the books to expand building products by $100 million dollars and new hospitals have opened and existing hospitals have expanded throughout the Tampa Bay area.  St. Joseph’s recently opened on Van Dyke Road in Lutz. This winter the Medical Center of Trinity, a $195 million dollar project will open with 236 beds and will have 1,300 employees and 400 doctors. Another hospital will be opening in Wesley Chapel.

With all of these new jobs housing will be required and Southern Crafted Homes has been able to create a niche within the medical community because of that. The company has two communities, Stonegate and Devonwood in Land O Lakes just east of the Trinity location and just north of the Lutz hospital. The new hospital in Wesley Chapel will be just a short drive away from its community The Preserve at Quailwoods.  

It is no wonder that Southern Crafted Homes had 68% of its sales with medical professionals in 2009 and 72% in 2010. That number continues to grow as word of mouth spreads and medical professionals from throughout the tri-county area look to Southern Crafted Homes to build their new home in Tampa. Devonwood provides low maintenance, luxury villas in a private, gated community. Stonegate, also gated, features world class amenities such as a clubhouse, pool, gym, playground, park, walking trails and a fishing dock. And The Preserve at Quailwoods is a gated community nestled in nature with wide open spaces but conveniently located to everything.  And none of the communities have CDD Fees.

If you are looking for your new homes in Tampa don’t miss Southern Crafted Homes. All homes are Energy Star and FGBC Green Certified and come with the best warranty in the entire area.

A Brief History Of Tampa Bay

Posted on: February 2nd, 2011 by admin No Comments

It is not hard to understand why so many choose Tampa Bay for their new home. New homes in Tampa Bay are going up throughout Hillsborough and Pasco County. Some of the most beautiful new home communities in Tampa are located on the 54 corridor just north of the city itself. The following is a brief history of the area.

Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and estuary along the Gulf of Mexico on the west central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay.

“Tampa Bay” is not the name of any municipality. This misconception probably stems from the naming of several professional sports franchises (including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Tampa Bay Rays) whose names represent the collective Tampa Bay Area, the hub of which is the city of Tampa, Florida

Origin

Approximately 6,000 years ago, Tampa Bay formed as a brackish drowned river valley type estuary with a wide mouth connecting it to the Gulf of Mexico. Prior to that time, it was a large fresh water lake, possibly fed by the Floridian Aquifer through natural springs. Though the exact process of the lake-to-bay transformation is not completely understood, the leading theory is that rising seas levels following the last ice age coupled with the formation of a massive sink hole near the current mouth of the bay created a connection between the lake and the gulf.

Ecology

Tampa Bay is Florida’s largest open-water estuary, extending over 400 square miles and forming coastlines of Hillsborough, Manatee and Pinellas counties. The freshwater sources of the bay are distributed among over a hundred small tributaries, rather than a single river. The Hillsborough River is the largest such freshwater source, with the Alafia, Manatee, and Little Manatee Rivers the next largest sources. Because of these many flows into the bay, its watershed covers portions of five Florida counties and approximately 2,200 square miles. The bay bottom is silty and sandy with an average depth of only about 12 feet .

Tampa Bay’s shallow waters, sea grass beds, mud flats, and surrounding mangrove-dominated wetlands provide habitat for a wide variety of wildlife. More than 200 species of fish are found in the waters of the bay, along with bottlenose dolphins and manatees plus many types of marine invertebrates including oysters, scallops, clams, shrimp and crab. More than two dozen species of birds, including brown pelicans, several types of heron and egret, Roseate spoonbills, cormorants, and laughing gulls make their year-round home along its shores and small islands, with several other species joining them in the winter. The cooler months is also when warm water outfalls from power plants bordering the bay draw one out of every six endangered manatees to the area[

Tampa Bay has been designated an estuary of national significance by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Two National Wildlife Refuges are located in Tampa Bay: Pinellas National Wildlife Refuge and the refuge on Egmont Key. Most of the islands (including several man-made islands built from dredge spoil) and sandbars are off-limits to the public due to their fragile ecology and their use as nesting sites. The Tampa Bay Estuary Program keeps watch over the Bay’s health.

Human habitation

 

Humans have lived in the area for millennia, possibly as long as 12,000 to 14,000 years. The first local people to fully adapt to a sea-side lifestyle was the Manasota culture, who lived on the shores of Tampa Bay beginning around 5,000 – 6,000 years ago and eventually evolving into the Weeden Island culture. Approximately 1,100 years ago, the Tocobaga developed near present-day Safety Harbor along Old Tampa Bay. These were the people living in the area at the time of first contact with Europeans.

Spanish maps dated as early as 1584 identifies Tampa Bay as Baya de Spirito Santo (“Bay of the Holy Spirit”). A map dated 1695 identifies the area as Bahia Tampa. Later maps dated 1794 and 1800 show the bay divided with three different names, Tampa Bay, Hillsboro Bay and the overall name of Bay of Spiritu(o) Santo.

The United States acquired Florida from Spain in 1819. The name Spirito Santo seems to have disappeared from maps of the region in favor of “Tampa Bay” (sometimes divided into Tampa and Hillsboro Bays) soon after Fort Brooke was established at the mouth of the Hillsborough River in 1824.

For the next 100 years, many new communities were founded around the bay. Fort Brooke begat Tampa on the northeast shores, Fort Harrison begat Clearwater on the west, the trading post of “Braden’s Town” developed into Bradenton on the south, and St. Petersburg grew quickly after its founding in the late 1800s. By 2000, the region surrounding Tampa Bay was home to over 2.5 million residents.