My Own Home: Family of three live with 16 cats, two pet geckos and a dog in Dh30 million Arabian Ranches villa

Iranian property investor Taraneh Khajenoori loves life in her busy Mirador home next to a golf course

Taraneh Khajenoori lives with her husband Ali, daughter Tara, as well as two friends, 16 cats, two geckos and a dog in a five-bedroom villa in Golf Villas, Arabian Ranches, Dubai. All photos: Chris Whiteoak / The National

From left to right: Taraneh, Ali and Tara

The kitchen

The TV room

A spare room

The pets' room

The master bedroom

A seating area in the master bedroom

The master bathroom

The dining area

A walk-in closet

Taraneh's studio

A seating area

The family with one of their 16 cats and the German Shepherd

The private swimming pool

Outdoor seating area

Another outdoor seating area

The barbecue area

My Own Home takes you inside a reader-owned property to ask how much they paid, why they decided to buy and what they have done with it since moving in

Taraneh Khajenoori has owned many houses in the 35 years she’s lived in the UAE, but her favourite is the one she's currently living in.

The Iranian property investor lives in a five-bedroom home in Golf Villas, in Arabian Ranches 1, with her husband Ali, daughter Tara, her daughter’s two best friends, 16 cats, two geckos and a German Shepherd.

The family moved in about 10 years ago when they bought the property for Dh12.5 million. Today, its market value is at least Dh30 million.

The National has a look around.

Please tell us about your home

Tara Noori: It's in a very nice, quiet neighbourhood. Everyone mostly keeps to themselves. I love the way they were able to make it so green. It’s a bit like something you’d see in Malibu, very summery.

Taraneh Khajenoori: We are in the Mirador collection, Golf Villas, about 15 or 16 villas that were built separately. They’re large houses – our villa is about 26,000 square feet.

The villa is based in Arabian Ranches 1, as part of the Mirador collection. Chris Whiteoak / The National

People here have completely remodelled their homes, so not all of the houses look like each other. You see colours, you see greenery and the neighbourhood is so safe.

Tara: It’s mostly open space inside – when you walk in there’s high ceilings, a dining room and living area, the kitchen, there’s also an office there.

Taraneh: We have five bedrooms, a living room and a large TV room.

Have you done any renovations?

Taraneh: We’re actually remodelling now. We’ve started in the garden and then we’ll go inside the house. We’re also doing the front of the house, changing some stuff and I want to build floating stairs in the entrance.

I love our garden. It was just sand when we came and we did everything ourselves. We have memories in every corner.

Before this, we’ve done the pool, we have a sitting area and a big fire pit.

Tara: We also built what was meant to be a games room, but now it’s a wardrobe and art room.

What style of decorations have you chosen?

Tara: My parents love DIY. My mother has quite a few remodelling projects that she does completely by herself.

Taraneh: I like to play with things. Not only decorations but making things, painting, making statues and doing work on the walls.

Taraneh created the bathroom mirror. Chris Whiteoak / The National

I also like to collect things. I don't throw things. I like to keep them, because I make things from them, you know, I just keep anything, you name it. Even if I see it in the rubbish, I take it in.

Tara: She made a cat treehouse completely out of tree branches that she found in the street. If you ever need anything to be fixed, built or resized, you know who to go to.

How did you end up with so many animals?

Tara: We used to live with my grandma and she wouldn’t let us have animals, but when she left, we got two cats, one male and one female, and, you know, once one gets pregnant, it’s like five or six kittens sometimes.

Then I would find a cat and bring it home, then we’d have to keep it.

The cats are what make the house.

Taraneh: We have encouraged so many people in Dubai to have and love cats themselves.

A cat tree made by Taraneh. Chris Whiteoak / The National

Tara: And also not to be scared of dogs, because we have a very threatening-looking German Shepherd that’s actually so sweet. He wouldn’t hurt a fly, but he seems aggressive. But the cats are licking the dog, so how can you be scared of the dog?

Taraneh: They also beat him up. One of the cats throws him out of his sofa and sleeps in it. We are just such animal people.

Tara: My mum has even made a beetle farm for the geckos because their food gets expensive.

What amenities do you have access to?

Tara: There are two pools, tennis courts, two parks and a gym.

Taraneh: There’s a golf course right behind us, but we have to be a member to use it. That’s our view, though.

Tara: It’s a nice place to walk, to see the nature of the course.

Taraneh: We don’t really use the facilities much, but I just love how safe it is here. Whether it’s 3am or 4am, I can go out alone, or if my daughter goes out to walk, I’m not worried.

How long will you be in this house?

Tara: I think we’ll stay here for a long time. My grandma also lives a few houses down.

Is there anything you’d want to change about it?

Taraneh: The only thing that bothers me in this area is the rubbish. I used to live in Jumeirah before, which is being taken care of by Dubai Municipality, and they used to take the rubbish every day.

Here we pay about Dh70,000 in service charges per year, and they only take one bag three times a week, no matter what size your house is. They also won’t take anything that comes from the garden, like branches, and we have large trees that we have to trim all the time.

So I have to pay Dh600 per month extra just to get someone to come and take the rest of our rubbish.