Customer Reviews

Brandon & Jennifer — building a custom home in their own backyard

Brandon and Jennifer had lived in their home for nearly 12 years when they began considering an addition. Instead, their corner lot presented another possibility: building a new home in their own backyard.

After touring a Keel home, they were drawn to the craftsmanship and attention to detail. Keel connected them with a zoning consultant and draftsman before they were even under contract, helping them determine how the unusual infill project could work.

When they discovered there were no public water or sewer lines available in the street, Keel’s construction team and the zoning consultant found another solution. By running the utilities through an easement on their existing property, they avoided the costly extension that could have made the project unaffordable.

Bridget guided them through selections and helped them stay on budget. “It can feel daunting at the beginning because there are so many choices,” Jennifer says. “We could go as custom as we wanted, or we could choose from the standards Keel had already selected.”

“Building custom, we were really able to get everything we wanted into the house from the get-go,” Brandon says. “We weren’t making compromises.”

The finished home feels remarkably private despite its city setting. “It came together beautifully, better than anybody imagined,” Jennifer says. Their favorite memory came soon afterward: bringing their new son home from the hospital.

Stephen & Kailey — redesigning the Sanibel

Stephen Godfrey and Kailey Phillips came to Keel after a production builder said no once too often.

“We wanted to move some rooms around or take some rooms out, and they just weren’t able to do that like Keel was able to do,” Stephen says. “We just wanted the opportunity to start from scratch.”

Kailey had a picture in her head of the house she wanted. “I’ve always pictured my forever home with a big front porch, kind of a country style, and I fell in love with the Sanibel.” The plan became a starting point rather than a fixed shape: they removed a bedroom to open up a loft, which made room for a floor-to-ceiling fireplace and brought considerably more light into the space. “She just helped us redesign the entirety of the inside,” Kailey says of design consultant Bridget. “It felt like an existing floor plan once we were done.”

What they mention most is access. “Being able to call them, text them, email them, come visit them on site at their local office was super helpful,” Stephen says. “You’re always their first priority. I genuinely can’t think of a time that I reached out to them where I didn’t hear back.”

Les & Lyne — a wraparound porch and a studio

Les Owen and Lyne Babin had looked at a lot of builders without much conviction. “A lot of them seemed the same or just didn’t quite feel just right for us,” Les recalls — until Lyne showed him a photograph. “She showed me the picture of the Sanibel and that big front porch. It just screamed at me — this is the one.”

They wanted a wraparound porch and French doors leading onto it. When the budget tightened during design, the response was to rework the plan rather than to trim the ambition. “We started running into budget issues, but what we decided to do was rearrange some of the design within the house itself,” Les says. “They were great with coming up with ideas of how to make that happen. It worked out beautifully.”

Les works in music and filmmaking and needed a studio that would serve for both practice and editing. “Because of the way Keel built it with the windows and glass doors, I can sit at my desk and work and turn around, look outside and see the beautiful nature around our home.”

Lyne’s abiding memory is of the selections. “Step by step, you realize you come together in the end with all of these selections and you walk into your house and you know — this is mine.” Of the team: “The first time we met the Keel team, it felt like we were meeting friends.”

“We wake up every morning feeling like it’s a dream,” Les says. “It’s brought this excitement to our lives that’s greater than we had anticipated.”