Creating Our Den before the End of 2010!

After a long wait of about 7 months we finally moved into our new home on March 5th, 2010. It took so long for us to become the new home owners because this house was what the real estate market calls a "short-sale" since the owner was short on paying their mortgage. But we were determined to wait to get this beautiful home because it was a really great price (due to the recent downward plunge of home values) and also the previous owner had taken really good care of the home. I loved the unique floor plan and it was in move-in-ready condition! This is Uday's first home and my first single family home! To this day it is almost hard to believe that we were able to afford and buy a 4 bed-room single family home in this luxurious community, that we could only dream about a year ago as we drove past it. This is a dream come true!!

The community in which our new home is located is called "Olympia" (by Minto builders) in Wellington, Florida. Just across the Wellington Mall, and few minutes away from all conveniences, as well as the major Turnpike highway, this community is in a prime location. Not to mention, that Madonna may be moving to Wellington soon as well! Olympia is a beautiful gated community with serene lakes and preserves that draws one to ride on their bicycle among the peaceful sidewalks enjoying the views and the occasional sounds and sights of south Florida birds. This community is ideal for families and kids and has a club house that is designed like a 5 star resort including an indoor basketball court, pool table, full fledged gym, wireless internet, entertainment room with a big screen TV, and much more. To add to these is the fabulous outdoor pool, jacuzzi, cabanas, kids play ground, kids water play area, outdoor basketball court, tennis courts, and beach sand volleyball court!! It is a fairly large community with hundreds of acres of land and about 2000 homes!

Check out this link about the OLYMPIA community that we live in now.

Areal view of the community club-house:


View of the entrance:



The club-house foyer area:


Club-house pool area:


Club-house jacuzzi area:


Club-house kids water play area and gym:










Outdoor tennis courts and volleyball court:











The city of Wellington is also a great place to raise a family with it's A-rated schools just walking distance from where we live.We just can't wait to have a kid or two of our own :)

And now you will see why I haven't written a blog for a few months... due to the work of moving and home improvement! The following will show progress on our home and what we have been up to the last two months...

This is the front of our home before we had it painted...


and now after we had it painted to the color of our choice (thanks to our association for allowing this change). I love color, what a difference!!


Decisions, decisions, money here, money there, cleaning, unpacking work to be done everywhere... This has been me and Uday's experience since we have moved into our new home about two months ago. It does not seem like we have been here this long already because we have been so busy and pretty tired. Even Boo and Simba have been busy getting comfortable with the house, meeting the new neighbors, and exploring.










Trying to keep up with the regular routine...


...butt... very tired...


getting ready for an afternoon nap...


...can't stay awake...


very sleepy...


sleepy and settling into the new bedroom...


and the new family room...


especially after a hard days work!


After spending one weekend moving in, we spent two weekends unpacking everything except Uday's books. We spent many weekends shopping while unpacking more and doing yard work, having laminate floors put in upstairs and on our stairs and getting the inside and outside of our new house painted.



We really haven't been able to enjoy our house yet but hope that everything will be done soon and we can relax. On April 26th we got our fence installed in our backyard, and that is when the dogs were happy and we can soon have a party. But don't get me wrong, we are very excited to be in our new home and so are our dogs (Boo and Simba) and my Mom's dog (Hailey) when she visits.

Here are some pictures of work in progress so far! Dining Room: The first night we slept in our home, the dogs are sleeping on a chase in our dining room:


About one week later where we are having some furniture delivered and Uday is standing in our dining room.


The dining room table in our dining room! (seats 9 people! Ya! it fits!) We will be moving this chandelier to our bedroom as it does not go with the "Japanese look".

I like worldly stuff I decided to decorate our home with each room representing a place.


Dining Room in progress...


Here it is finally painted and complete with the exception of curtains... this has the Japanese-style Asian theme!


Here is another view of our dining room looking into the living room by the front door.


We still plan to have the columns and railing faux finished to look like dark wood... Below is a picture of the other side of the dining room in the hall area in progress:



and after being painted...


Family Room: Before:



in progress... which has the African theme!









Sitting room in our Master bedroom... before:


and after... with the Indian theme!



Master Bedroom... before:



in progress...



and after... which has the Moroccan/Indian/Asian theme!





Master Bathroom... before:

and after paining and continues to be in progress... with the Asian theme!


Living Room... before:



in progress...









and after being painted (new curtains to come)... and has the old-world Spanish theme!




Our Kitchen... before painting and adding a kitchen table:

and after... which has the old-world European theme!


Our office is still a work in progress but getting there... this has the tropical theme!




Here is a picture of our downstairs bathroom... which also has the tropical theme!


Here is a picture of one of the upstairs bedroom that we are calling our New-Age/Exercise-Room (it is a light color lavender room but the picture did not take well due to the sunlight coming in):



The next picture is also another bedroom upstairs and it is our guest room and is a beach theme:



The back of our house... before:


as it is being painted:


We got our fence on April 27th and the dogs are getting along well with the neighbor dogs and are loving the backyard! We are working on making our backyard look more Tiki/Polynesian like!





Uday says we keep saying, "we are getting there" but he wonders "where we are getting"? I told him we are getting to the finish line so we can finally sit back and enjoy ourselves and our home! We still need to get some rugs, curtains, shades, and nice pictures before we are finally done. Home improvement is often an ongoing process but we would love for you to leave your comments about our new home!

Click on the picture below or this link, to see all pictures of our home before renovations:


Click on the picture below or this link, to see all pictures of our home after renovations: