No matter where your next home is located, someday you or your heirs will sell it (unless you do something in your lifetime that warrants a museum after you are gone).  "Flow" will be important in making the house as saleable as possible.
    Flow is the term real estate agents and interior design experts use to describe how traffic moves through the home, from outside in, inside out and from one room to the next.  A home with bad flow might, for example, force guests to walk through your study or, worse, a bedroom, to get to a bathroom.  (Don't laugh; I've been in houses that quirky although, come to think of it, they were all in California.) 

    A home with good flow means rooms are allocated based on most people's normal movements and lifestyle.  For example, folks in their 60s or older shouldn't have to walk a flight of stairs each evening to get to their bedrooms; you leave that for the kids and grandkids.  Indeed, the trend in many new homes in the southeastern U.S. is for a master bedroom suite at ground level, with an additional master upstairs (or downstairs, in some designs) for the visiting kids and their families. Yet because many new, healthy homeowners in golfing communities strive to maximize the view of the golf course or water, they build their own bedrooms upstairs, often with a walkout deck.  That's fine for now, but such a design will make the market for the house much narrower later on (and, ultimately, you may wish that you had let Otis put that elevator in when you built the house).
    Few of us spend most of our waking hours in our bedrooms (I'm resisting the Viagra joke here).  Studies show we spend most of our in-house time in kitchens, family rooms and studies, and these rooms should be adjacent to each other to maximize flow.  You shouldn't have to walk down a long hall or through another room with a hot coffee or cocoa in hand to cozy up to the fireplace, television set or PC.  And for those who will "work" in retirement, experts suggest the work desk be as far away from the bedroom as possible, sound advice in my own experience.  You will sleep better, especially knowing that you are widening the market for your home years from now.

Sometimes the view from a property cries out for two-story or higher construction.  Other times, flood plain issues dictate that living space be at least one floor above ground, as at this home in DeBordieu Colony in Georgetown, SC, less than a quarter mile from the ocean.

    They aerated the greens at my home course on Monday, but through the good graces of reciprocal privileges, my golf pro at Hop Meadow in Simsbury, CT, was able to arrange for me to play at Farmington Woods in Farmington yesterday.
    Farmington Woods is a gated, large condominium complex with a relatively few single-family homes that were added in recent years.  Over its more than 25 years, the community has been largely favored by empty nesters who sold at a substantial profit the houses in which they had raised their children to move to a community that offered an affordable private golf club and a neighborhood of sociable sexagenarians.  At a half hour from Hartford, CT, its location is just remote enough to give it a suburban feel but close enough to Hartford, and just two hours from both Boston and New York City, to provide plenty of entertainment options.
    The course is not for everyone.  It is relatively short but tight, yet those who prefer rolling fairways and undulating greens will find much to like.  Spray hitters should stay away; I found myself hitting 3 wood and 5 wood more than I am used to, but neither ever put me too far from home, and it was a pleasant change of pace to leave the driver in the bag on most par 4s and 5s.  The par-5s are mostly short, but severely doglegged, making cutting corners a perilous venture.  Long hitters can hit as little as 5-irons on a few par 4s to put themselves in position for well-placed lay-ups.  The par 3s, for the most part, feature well positioned bunkers in front and sometimes significantly contoured putting surfaces.  The course was in terrific shape, with nary a bad lie in the fairways and greens that, although cross-cut days earlier, showed how good they must be when untouched by a machine other than lawn mower.  The grass on the tees was the best I have played anywhere this year.  (Sorry, I forgot the camera.)
    Farmington Woods was designed in 1973 by the late Desmond Muirhead, who combined with Jack Nicklaus to produce Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, site of the Nicklaus-sponsored annual PGA tournament.  Muirhead has scores of other courses to his credit, including both Boca West courses in Florida, the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills in California, and Desert Island in Rancho Mirage, CA.  Clearly at Farmington Woods, Muirhead was not given a whole lot of land to work with, yet he acquitted himself admirably.  There are a fair number of water hazards, but they are easily negotiable, and the sand bunkers are only a concern on the par 3s and in the landing areas of two other holes. 

    Only a couple of holes are lined with the ugly OB stakes that "protect" the backyards of residents.  And the walk or cart drive between 15th green and 16th tee, at more than a quarter-mile, is the longest in my experience outside a resort.  Farmington Woods would be a tough walk for all but the best conditioned 60-somethings, but these are small quibbles, more than made up for by the beautiful mountain vistas from a number of fairways and greens.
    Golf and residence at Farmington Woods are bargains; initiation fees are well under $10,000 and real estate choices start in the $300s.  The older homes, which were built with all wood exteriors, are starting to show their age, but the newer units are sparkling, and the landscaping throughout the community Is what you would expect in much-higher-end communities.  Farmington Woods includes seven tennis courts and four separate pool areas.  Although we saw a number of older couples out on the course, we also played through a group of 15-year-old boys who were having a grand old time.  Mothers pushing strollers (prams for our British readers) and a 90ish woman with a cute but yappy Lhasa Apso rounded out the scene.  Farmington Woods is an eclectic community.  
    For those New Englanders who want year round private-club golf but don't want to leave behind friends and family, a summer home at a place like Farmington Woods and a winter home in the southern U.S. would be wonderfully complementary, without breaking the bank.
    Web site is FarmingtonWoods.com.

    Farmington Woods Golf Club plays at 6,577 yards from the tips (Rating 72.6, Slope 129).  The men's tees are 6,119 (70.7/125) and the women's 5,523 yards (72.1/121).