June 2016 Update

We love to keep our guests, past and future, updated about our ongoing improvements at the house.  After a week in the Florida sun we are back home and want to share our most recent updates with everyone. Without further ado here they are!

We have a brand new patio table and matching chairs.

A brand new mat to welcome you to your home away from home.

The pool deck has gotten a facelift. Are you ready for a vacation now?

New light fixture in the Queen master bathroom.

Our Alice bedroom has new bedding and some fun drapery.

Quidditch supplies have made an appearance in our Harry Potter room.


Some other minor items also include, new hallway lights, and new clothes hangers in all the bedrooms. Spring cleaning and maintenance items were taken care of as well.  We hope that all the little things make our guests vacations just a little bit more enjoyable.  We welcome all comments!

News from Mickey's Garden Villa-Updates, Updates, Updates!

The month of October brought another trip for our family to the sunny state of Florida.  Prior to our arrival plans for upgrades and improvements to the house were already in progress.  We are always looking for ways to improve things for our guests. I truly enjoy looking for the little things that add that special something to the house.

For quite awhile we've been planning on replacing the carpets in the bedrooms of the house.  It is now done! Brand new carpeting in all the bedrooms and upstairs hallway.  We hope that everyone enjoys it as much as we did.  Along with the carpets we also got some paint touch ups completed to freshen up the house.

Another big item was removing the vertical blinds in the living room.  They did their job but it was time for them to retire. In their place we have put in drapes that not only provide privacy but we think they look nice too!

One of our fun additions is pictured below:

No Harry Potter themed bedroom would be complete without some trunks. Where else would our visiting witch and wizards like to put their things while on vacation.

Here's the list of things we accomplished for our guests on our last visit:

• Main floor Queen bedroom: new TV, new bedding, new blinds
• New carpeting in all bedrooms, upstairs hallway and stairs
• Paint touch ups throughout the house
• New drapes in the living room
• King master bedroom: new lamps, robe hooks in en suite
• Some new Disney touches in the dining room
• Queen Master bedroom: new TV, new shower curtain and rod in en suite
• Bunk Bed room: new ceiling fan, TV stand and blinds
• New nightstand in Harry Potter room
• Towel/swimsuit hooks in lanai/pool bathroom
• Alice in Wonderland room: new Alice pillow cases
• Motion/temperature sensor in upstairs hallway

Well that's it for now, we hope that all of our guests enjoy our ongoing updates. We only have 3 weeks left available in 2015 and we are looking forward to welcoming more guests in 2016. If you have any questions or comments we'd love to hear from you.

Ongoing Updates at Mickey's Garden Villa

As owners we strive to continually improve our property for our guest's enjoyment. This December we continued our commitment and guests will find the following changes at Mickey's Garden Villa:

1. Queen Master Bedroom: new bedding, linens, ceiling fan and window coverings.
2. Queen Guest Room: new African decor, new blackout drapes, new mattress set
3. King Master Bedroom: New faucets in the en-suite
4. Alice in Wonderland bedroom:  New comforters
5. Harry Potter Bedroom: New picture frames, curtain rod and Hogwarts crest
6. Bunk Bedroom:  our movie themeing continues with the addition of a DVD player, movie camera lamp, popcorn pillow and 2 more movie posters (Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean and Star Wars, episodes 4, 5, 6). We also replaced linens in this room as well.
7. Kitchen: we replaced all the pots and pans, added some miscellaneous utensils and added a double Belgium waffle iron.
8. Living area: new table and floor lamps.
9. Outside:  a security camera was installed, some minor paint touch ups, new closures on the screen doors and in October we had the pool heater replaced.
10. Luggage stands in 3 bedrooms.

The Windsor Palms Clubhouse has also undergone some improvements as well.  The gamesroom has gotten new games, carpet and paint.  The Cinema has also been refreshed.

We welcome all questions and comments. Thanks

Updates at Mickey's Garden Villa and Windsor Palms

It's taken a couple of weeks to get back into the swing of things but I've finally gotten it together to write a new post on our most recent updates.

We had some great weather while we were visiting and that helped us to complete our biggest task. We painted the outside of the house and the pool deck.  You can check out the exterior in the above picture or check out our website  www.mickeysgardenvilla.com.

Our other changes are not so dramatic but fun none the less!

• New Alice in Wonderland Poster
• Pocket watch clock (shhh, don't tell the white rabbit)
• Gryffindor and Slytherin are now represented in our Harry Potter room
• New Hogwarts bedding and new linens
• Owl lamp for late night spell reading.
• Our bunk bed room now has a movie influence, some cool new movie posters.
• New drapes in the bunk room as well.
• Griddle in the kitchen
• Some new kitchen utensils 
• New stainless steel bowls
• New sink and faucet in Queen Master bathroom
• New sink in the pool bathroom
• New BBQ
• Safe in the King master bedroom closet to store your valuables.
• Outdoor clock/thermometer
• New dining room chandelier
• New phones and answering machine
• New pool lights

Windsor Palms has also been doing some upgrades. This month they have resurfaced our basketball and tennis courts. Check out the pictures below.

A stormy day when this picture was taken.

A sunnier day for the basketball courts.

So while the Orlando area has lots of attractions and shopping to keep you busy. If you decide that a day lounging by the pool or checking out the community is in order,  you are sure to find lots to do in the neighbourhood.

If I was in Orlando, I'd be crying in my Butterbeer!

Can you sense from the title of my post that I'm starting to get frustrated?  I mean come on, it's not like we've been sitting around waiting for this house sale to go through for months. Oh, wait a minute that's exactly what we've been doing.

It's funny how a seemingly innocent e-mail, meant to keep us informed has got me so irritated. This afternoon,  I happened to be thinking that we should get our usual update today or tomorrow. When I saw the ping of new e-mail on my phone I took a peak at the subject lines appearing at the top of the screen and saw the house address attached to an e-mail from our Realtor's assistant. Yippee! Not so it seems.  I started to read and actually put my phone down and decided I needed to read this on the computer so I could make sure I was reading the e-mail correctly.

I like to think we've been pretty patient up to this point. A lot patient for that matter. I think that's changing.  The e-mail was just to let us know that the bank requested information from the lawyer and listing agent on a Friday evening with the deadline for response being Sunday morning. How many lawyers do you know that work on the weekend?  Anyway, I assume the deadline was missed and the lawyer had to call the bank and ask them to extend the deadline as it had been unreasonable. The bank agreed and here we are waiting for the listing agent to update the house listing and then for the lawyer to upload it to this Equator system. All the while things are delayed once again.

I think that I should just forget about planning what I'd like to do with the kids when we go down, because every time I start thinking about it things seem to go awry.  So chances of us getting to see Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party, The Osbourne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights or even Grinchmas at Islands of Adventure are pretty slim. Maybe I'll plan on seeing Transformers the ride! For those not in the know, it's Universal Orlando's new dark ride coming Summer 2013. Ha! for that matter why don't I just say we'll go down when the Harry Potter expansion is finished and that date hasn't even been announced!

Putting this all down on virtual paper actually makes me feel better.  Since I'm not a beer drinker I can't cry in any, and I'm not in Orlando so there's no Butterbeer here either. So that kind of moping is out. I'm thinking of a quote one of my favourite Princesses "A dream is a wish your heart makes", but even that's not helping my outlook today.  I think what we have to look forward to at this point is paperwork. Fingers crossed that once they upload the listing we'll be back on track...maybe...hopefully.....

Let's Get this Party Started!

The title of today's post has 2 meanings. I'll start with the first.  The seller of the house has a new lawyer! Thank you! Our Realtor has spoken with the firm and they have been retained, now we are waiting for confirmation that they have the file and are working on it.  They report having almost 100% track record for closing deals. Who knows maybe we'll be one of the ones they don't close but it sounds like the odds are in our favour. So let's get it going!!!!

Secondly, I am in process of planning my soon to be 9 year old daughter's birthday party.  She has decided that she wants a Harry Potter theme.  So keeping me busy has been all the planning.  Sorting Hat cake, Owl delivered invitations and lots of candy to boot.  It takes a lot of planning so that's what I've been doing to keep occupied. 

Summer vacation is about 1/2 over can you believe it!  It's been over 6 months since I started this blog and I thought by now I'd be telling you all about the house, the changes we've made and what you could do while in the Orlando area. But so far it's just been me commiserating with you and having some fun along the way. I hope you are all having a great summer and thanks for stopping by!

Oh So Frustrated!

Have I told anyone how much I'd like this process to be over? Well I'm ready but it appears the banks are not. I got my weekly update today. Good news, bad news...what's new right? Here's the scoop: I totally was aware of how long this could take, I just hoped it would be quick. Not so. This is becoming longer than average! But that's the bad news and although it's not what we want, it's not bad more time to save money etc. etc.

On to the Good News! The seller is turfing her lawyer! It appears that this is one of the stumbling blocks that we've been facing.  He didn't seem to know the process and it has slowed everything down and made it more complicated. Or at least made it longer, blah!  But what can we do, the seller has taken a recommendation for a new lawyer and hopefully they can get things back on track and speed up this process.

Now I can actually plan our daughters birthday party. Harry Potter theme this year. I am going to be ambitious and make a Sorting Hat cake, we will see how that turns out! I have my butter beer recipe in hand and will be searching out suitable party favours.  This will be fun!!! I shall now occupy myself with this task and maybe, just maybe progress will be made!

Enjoy your weekend!