| What's New We continue to make improvements to the condo and below you will find a summary of the recent upgrades that have been made as well as the opportunity to subscribe to our newsletter. Subscribe to our Newsletter If you would like to receive periodic updates about the condo or special promotions, please use the Contact Us form and include a note that you would like to subscribe to our newsletter. Your privacy is important to us and your contact info will never be sold or shared with others. We expect to email newsletters only a few times a year, so we won't fill up you Inbox with junk email.
January 2012 With the tragic deaths of John Forier (owner of Paradise Lakes Resort) and his girlfriend Pam Tanner in a car accident that happened in November 2011, I am sure that guests may be curious about what it means for resort operations. Ownership of the resort is now with John's daughters who will continue to operate the resort until a new owner can be found. John's daughters have promoted Stephanie Gibson to acting General Manager. Stephanie has been with the resort for 10 years and has a vested interest in seeing it succeed. I am extremely encouraged by changes that I have already seen happening such as the weekly email from the resort is focusing more on activities that will appeal to all nudists and not just lifestyle parties. The January 11th edition of the resort newsletter featured dinner specials in Hemingway's, Thursday night happy hour in Club Reveal and events like karaoke two nights a week and taco specials on the Texas Hold 'Em nights. Two noticeable changes on the ParadiseLakes.com website are long overdue. The first being that there actually is a Special Events calendar on the Events section of the website. The January calendar features new activities like Zumba and Yoga classes in addition to the water aerobics. Barb & MJ are hosting a "Girls Night Out" event on January 19th featuring cocktails & dinner followed by dancing in Club Reveal. There is also a "Nude Ranch Weekend" scheduled for January 21st & 22nd which also coincides with the AANR-Florida Midwinter Board Meeting. Sorry, Paradise Found is already booked that weekend by AANR-Florida board members. The other change on the website is one that I have long requested and only recently implemented. The daily grounds fees have been missing from the website for over a year but they are now published on the Membership Rates document. Not only have the daily rates been added ($48/couple), but the membership rates have been lowered. Couples memberships rates are now: This puts Paradise Lakes Resort's daily grounds fees at less than half of Caliente's which is currently $100/couple/day. Depending on where you live, your annual membership at Paradise Lakes will be 80% to 125% LESS than at Caliente, whose current Annual Couples Membership is $1800/year. So we are seeing positive changes in the resort already and a renewed focus on mainstream nudist clientele. Whether you are a previous guest or considering your first stay with us, thank you for your interest in Paradise Found and we hope to welcome you to our condo soon. September 2011 Chris and I were down for a week in late September to celebrate a birthday and anniversary and had one of the couples that are our long time Club Orient friends come stay with us for part of the trip. I'm happy to report that Paradise Found is in good condition although we did opt to have the kitchen faucet replaced in the 1 Bedroom side of the condo. It had started to leak and I was never overly fond of that particular design so I got the style that I prefer and no more drip. July 2011 We are now accepting WePay for electronic payments which can be made directly from your bank account or by credit card (Visa and MasterCard). WePay is young company but their payment platform is very well designed, easy to use and secure. 
May 2011 Chris and I are here for a few days following my sales conference in Orlando last week. I'd like to thank all of our wonderful guests that respect our vacation home and treat it like it was there own. Other than replacing some light bulbs and a couple of bedside accent rugs plus adding a couple of additional sitting towels in the Studio, the condo doesn't need any maintenance which means that I get to relax by the pool. One note of interest is that most of the Paradise Lakes neighborhoods will be getting new street names and numbers effective June 1, 2011. This is a requirement of the county to make it easier for police, fire & rescue to be able to locate buildings easier and faster. On June 1st, addresses in The Fountains will no longer be 2007 Brinson Road. Building 2 will become 21055 Fountain View Lane. I don't know how long that it will take for the GPS manufactures as well as Google & Bing Maps to reflect the new address, so you might have to use the old one for navigation & directions for a while. NOTE: The address change has been postponed by Pasco County so 2007 Brinson Rd will remain in effect until further notice. I have added an Event Calendar page to the website. On it you will find annual events of interest in the Tampa area (like Gasparilla Pirate Fest and the Volleyball tournament at Lake Como). In addition, I will add interesting events and happenings (like Halloween parties at Paradise Lakes) in case that helps you decide when you want to book your next vacation at Paradise Found. November 2010 Chris and I are just back from a week at the condo for Halloween. The Halloween parties had better attendance this year than the past few years, so perhaps the economy is turning around or maybe people aren't willing to pay Caliente's prices and are returning to Paradise Lakes. Either way, it was great to see the number of people at the resort! Fortunately the condo didn't require any repairs. The Fountains buildings were painted over the summer so the exterior looks great. Chris and I did make some minor upgrades while we were there: Replaced the bedding in the 1BR but still the contemporary blue color palette. There is a photo of the new bedding on both the 1BR Photo and 1BR Slideshow pages. New carpet runner in the kitchen Added some additional kitchen accessories including a 2nd deep skillet New, larger pool towels for both the 1BR and Studio
The new pool towels were a suggestion from a guest. I appreciated the feedback and told her that I would upgrade the towels the next time that we were there. If you stay with us, please make suggestions if you see something that could be improved to make your stay more comfortable.
May 2010 Chris and I were down for a few days in mid-May and I took the opportunity to install a new Wireless-N router. For guests with newer laptops that support Wireless-N, you will now have faster Internet connectivity. For those that are still using the older "B" or "G" standards, the new router is backwards compatible with those standards and you will have no problems connecting. November 2009 The 1 Bedroom is now "Vonage-Ready". If any of our guests are Vonage telephone customers, all you have to do is bring your Vonage adapter with you. The entertainment center is now set up with a cordless phone and the cabling for Vonage phone service. This even includes the Vonage AC Adapter so all you have to bring is your Vonage adapter. If you are not a Vonage customer but would like to sign up, you can click the Vonage link above or at the bottom of our home page. October 2009 Chris and I were down for a week and a half at the end of October for Halloween. The weather was terrific and we had friends from Daytona and Dallas come to visit. There was very little maintenance that needed to be done other than a little touch-up painting and replacing the clock/radio/CD in the studio, so the condo is ready for our winter rental clients. I shot some updated photos of the studio so there are pictures of the new bedding and I shot a video tour of the studio which you can see on the Photos & Videos page. July 2009 The studio has new bedding including a new comforter, sheets and pillows. The studio bathroom has a new shower curtain as well as new bath rugs. I will shoot new pictures when we are there in October as well as a video walk through of the studio and post them on the website. May 1, 2009 I had the opportunity to go to Florida on business at the end of April and all of our winter guests had checked out of the 1 Bedroom unit, so I stayed for a week. The condo was still in excellent condition and I am so fortunate to have wonderful guests that take care of it like their own home. There were a few items that I wanted to get done while I was there, so here is the list of improvements: Cleaned the outside of the windows! This is supposed to be done professionaly from our condo dues, but it hasn't been done in a long time. For anyone that stayed with us recently, my apologies for their appearance. They are clean now and the view is great!
1 Bedroom Kitchen - replaced the old cookware with a new 12pc set of T-fal non-stick cookware. While not everyone wants to cook on a short vacation, this should be particularly nice for our long-term guests.
Studio Kitchen - replaced the old microwave oven with a nicer model.
Bedrooms - bought scatter rugs for either side of the beds so that you aren't getting out of bed on cold tile floors.
The condo association purchased four nice lounge chairs for the patio so if you don't feel like paying grounds fees at the club some days, you can work on your tan right on the patio. January 10, 2009 I shot digital video of the 1 Bedroom side of the condo when I finished all the redecorating in Aug 2008. I just uploaded the video and created a page for the video tour which you will find on the Photos & Video tab. December 8, 2008 We now accept PayPal and credit cards. While we still encourage guests to pay by check to help us keep our expenses low, we realize that some may be more comfortable paying by PayPal transfer or credit card. We can now accept all major credit cards via our PayPal account. Credit card payments are done by emailing you a PayPal invoice and payment is made on PayPal's secure website. September 1, 2008 All new photos and a new slideshow have been uploaded for the 1 Bedroom showing all of the improvements and redecorating that was done during my August maintenance trip. August 28, 2008 I am just back from a one week trip to the condo to complete planned upgrades. We picked August as it is one of the slower months and having it unavailable for our clients would have the least amount of impact and get it in great shape for the winter peak rental months. Here is a thorough list of the upgrades to the 1 Bedroom unit: High speed wireless Internet access has been installed and is now included free in your rental!! TV's - Living Room now features a 32" High Definition LCD Widescreen TV and a new DVD player with 1080p upconvert for great DVD viewing. Bedroom now features a 22" High Definition LCD Widescreen TV w/ integrated DVD player.
New keyless deadbolt so you don't have to carry keys with you when leaving the condo. Improved decor throughout the condo including: New bedding in master bedroom introducing a more sophisticated color scheme New artwork in the master bedroom to play off the new color palette Some new artwork and home decor in the dining & living rooms New draperies & window treatments in the dining room, kitchen & bathroom
Touch up painting throughout
So as you can see from the list above, the condo has taken on a fresh new look with a lot of great new features. I took all new photos when I was finished and will be updating the website photos within the next week. Please check back to see the new photos when they are posted. June 2008 The storm door for the 1BR side of the condo arrived and is now installed so that both the entry doors now have storm/screen doors on them. So now in the comfortable months, you can use the screen door and open windows on the opposite end of the condo and enjoy the wonderful breeze. May 2008 We spent a few days at the condo this month so that we could attend a graduation at University of Tampa. While we were there, we made the following improvements A storm door with sliding glass panel and retractable screen was added to the Studio. The storm door for the 1BR side had to be special ordered and should be on sometime in June.
The Studio TV was replaced and now sports a High Definition LCD Widescreen TV w/ integrated DVD player. Now that the TV supports High Def, there are many HD channels that you can watch. But honestly, did you really come to Paradise to just watch TV?
April 2008 The Fountains condo owner's association continued the patio project by purchasing patio furniture. Two round tables with benches were installed along with three more benches surrounding a fire pit. Two BBQ grills were relocated from other areas in The Fountains and are now conveniently located for grilling and entertaining on the patio. Another great addition to the patio is the new outdoor shower. If you would like to bring a lounge chair out and soak up some sun on the patio, now you can cool off in the outdoor shower. This is an ongoing project and there will be additional patio items added in the near future.
This page was last modified on Monday, January 16, 2012
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