Prior to this house we lived in the country on three acres. To be honest I got tired of all the maintenance that went with it, plus we had a pool we did not use much anymore so we opted to downsize and move into town. For the most part the HOA is there to protect the homeowners from someone doing something that would devalue the other homes. I love the convenience and low maintenance. I should have paid more attention to the covenants when we built, but then I did not expect the economy to go in the toilet and a new developer to take over the building. Live and learn, die an forget it all I guess.