Pros:
1. House was well appointed; beautiful decorations and finish out.
If you like to cook, the kitchen had most everything a home cook would need - plenty of big knives (we brought a sharpener), 2 stock pots, 4 big skillets and several smaller pots and pans. * Viking gas range wasn't at full speed; see below
2. Bedrooms were as cold as you wanted, which is a huge plus. 3. Having the separate carriage house studio was needed for our 2 17yo teen boys - and most appreciated by all!
3. Location made store runs super fast, and Carillon downtown and family pool/tennis courts are easy walking distance.
4. Phat Crab has the BEST pizzas! Expensive but convenient (35 mins for pickup on a Friday vs. 2+ hours for delivery with a national chain) and the bartender taking my order over the phone and giving them to the kids was so sweet and lovely. The Cafe was a bit pricey but employees lovely, with great casual food. Gratify is understaffed - but good food and good-natured employees.
5. The amenities are great - we loved spending time at the beach pool, with shade, pool, and beach chairs (4 included with 2 umbrellas with the house). We could watch all our kids and adults with ease, with a restroom conveniently underneath the complex.
Cons:
1. House is only 1600+ sq feet; the pictures online make it look much larger. Great for 5 people, but that's about enough that can comfortably move around and have alone time for days on end. A double bed is in a cubby at the top of the stairs with just privacy curtains (and shutters- fully light before 6am). The separate studio apartment gave our other two the space they needed for a week. Studio was also fully lighted early in the morning.
2. Location: This house (only house left when we looked for this trip 5 months ago) is right beside the only entry/guardhouse to Carillon, and backs up to the highway. This means road and entry noise at any and all hours of the day. It's less noticeable in the main house, but loud nonetheless.
3. The carriage house studio was NOT well cleaned; not sure when the last time was when it was fully cleaned. The first pillow we found was on top of the W&D; when we pulled it down, it was black with months of soot. *I took a picture then replaced the pillowcase with another in the unit.
4. The studio had a big plugin fan; our son noticed that it was CAKED with soot and had the (rare) foresight to bring it outside before turning it on - it blew out blades from the inside and tons of black soot. *Took a picture and told them not to ever use it again.
5. Not enough pillows: this house supposedly sleeps 13 but didn't have enough pillows per bed (or pullout).
*Contact with Vacasa:
1. I brought pictures of the dirty studio and dangerous fan to the office; they expressed concern but did nothing.
2. I asked for more pillows, stating there were not enough for the guaranteed 13person capacity; they were without solution and said keep looking in cubbies for more.
3. Kitchen gas Viking range does NOT operate at full capacity - the popup vent fan is inoperable, and the gas is governed to be at medium-low, not high heat. This extended our first dinner by an hour as we couldn't boil water, had to keep adding half-full smaller pots on different burners and keep watching and waiting. We used 3 pots for another dinner and it took just as long, adding more and more hot sink water to help. * I told the office the first day; they weren't concerned and didn't offer to send a plumber to help.
4. Be aware of the peculiar "hurricane door" locking mechanism - for the first 2 days, our front and back french doors blew open as we couldn't figure out how to use the lock to actually lock the doors. The Vacasa office talked me through this - it's complicated: turn the fixed door handle up while spinning the lock, then turn the working door handle up then everything lo...