For one New York-based investment banker, florida had been a favorite vacation retreat for nearly a decade before he finally committed to a full-time residence there upon retirement. But the journey from a gracious Manhattan townhome to a Miami Beach condominium left one desire unfulfilled — he had no choice but to put many of his prized possessions in storage. “It didn’t take long for me to realize that what I really wanted was a house on the water,” he says, “one that was large enough for me to enjoy being surrounded by all of my treasures one more time.” |
What he didn’t anticipate, however, was that the house he’d eventually buy would require such a massive makeover. “At first, I thought he planned on a minor renovation,” says interior designer Bjorn Bjornsson, whom the owner enlisted to spearhead the project, “but I knew him well enough to know that he would never be satisfied until the house was pretty much rebuilt from the ground up.”
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