Lakewood Ranch.

Lakewood Ranch is one of the largest master planned communities in the country and it straddles the Manatee and Sarasota county line, which means two sets of permitting offices and, on top of them, a community development district and a neighbourhood association with its own architectural review. Anything visible from the street generally goes through approval before it goes through permitting. That is a process rather than an obstacle, provided somebody prepares the submission properly and works to the standards instead of discovering them halfway through.

The houses themselves are newer than most of what we work on, largely late 1990s onward, and they are fundamentally sound. So the work here is an upgrade rather than a rescue. Builder grade cabinets and counters coming out for something better, tile and carpet replaced with large format porcelain or quality plank, primary bathrooms rebuilt with frameless glass and a curbless shower, and above all the lanai. Nearly every home here was handed over with a screened lanai the builder finished to the minimum, and turning that into genuinely usable outdoor living space is the most requested job on this side of the county.