The Retreat by the Lake: THE HISTORY

As a family, we have been to the Orlando area several times. We had always stayed within Walt Disney World. At the end of the last school year, we decided to do WDW one more time, but with a twist. We stayed at a vacation home in the area so that we would have lots of space for us and our kids, our own pool, peace and privacy, and flexibility in terms of meals and things. It was a truly wonderful experience... it was our best trip ever to the see "the mouse"... and we were left with lots of extra money in our pockets and wondering why we hadn't done it this way before.

In fact, it was such a great experience that we decided to purchase a vacation home in the area so that we would always have a nice place to stay when the winters here in Canada get to be too much for us to bare. It would also be a place that we could share with rental guests when we are not able to be there.

Through a referral from the nice couple from whom we rented the vacation home last June, we contacted Dan Palmer of Team Donovan Realty to help us find a place. After a two day exhaustive search later in August, we found our place... or, more accurately, it found us. Dan shepherded us through 17 houses in two days, but when we saw the Retreat we both knew immediately that it was the place for us. The location of this villa sold us right away ... it is perfect! It is a four bedroom, two bathroom villa with a south facing pool on a lake and only ten minutes away from WDW (really!), in a secure gated community called Sunset Lakes. This location is a true oasis in the Orlando/Kissimmee area. After you've done a theme park or played that excellent (or not) game of golf, you return through the gates of this established community into a quiet, serene environment where you have your own spacious villa into which you can escape.

After deciding that this was the place for us, Dan and the staff at Team Donovan took excellent care of us and patiently guided us through the Florida realty purchase process, which turned out to be nowhere near as scary as we thought it might be. One month later, the villa was ours.

THE RENOVATION

We absolutely love the villa and its location (can you tell?). We knew, however, that while it had clearly been loved by its previous owners, it needed to be updated. [We've met the previous owners and they are truly wonderful people who will always be welcome at the Retreat.] We had two options for updating the villa. We could have done a number of small fixes or we could go all out and do a complete renovation. Given that we've never been ones for half measures.... we thought... let's go for it ... let's renovate and make it one of the nicest vacation homes in Orlando. So, the place is being completely remodelled: new kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, fixtures, furniture, etc.

All-In Construction is doing the renovation work for us. Kenny Padgett is a thoroughly professional and responsive general contractor... he has gone out of his way to make everything as seamless as possible for us. We especially appreciate that he's been so understanding of the needs and concerns of clients who are thousands of miles away... he's been great at keeping the communications going.

The renovation is about to begin.

We are posting some "before" pictures. Check back regularly to see the renovation in progress, and especially the "after" pictures.

You can also consult the RetreatbytheLake website or contact us directly at theretreatbythelake01@gmail.com.