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.”