Customer Reviews

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.”