The house was sited to take advantage of the double fairway and clubhouse

The hit song of the Broadway musical Happy Hunting was “Mutual Admiration Society,” a duet first belted out in 1956 by Ethel Merman and Virginia Gibson. “The only fighting we do is just who loves who more than who,” they crooned. Another mutual admiration society flourishes today, but far south of the Great White Way, and its membership is composed of the clients and creative team behind a home in Boca Raton. “We’ve built several homes in that neighborhood, but these homeowners presented the most challenging and rewarding project to date for our team,” says builder Mark Miller about his clients, a couple in their 40s. “Their willingness to work hand in hand with our staff and the interior design team was critical to the success of the project.” According to the wife, the feeling was mutual, as was her praise for the interior design team of Susan Connor, Julie Harris, Vanessa Bugeja and Michele Sommers. “When you work with them, you don’t have to worry about a thing; they take care of every detail,” the wife says. 

The collaboration that kicked things off started when the couple met architect Randall Stofft quite by accident. The husband and wife were out shopping for a home to accommodate their family that includes a 15-year-old daughter, twin 12-year-old sons and two dogs. While considering one house, they spied a crew erecting what Stofft calls “a classic West Indies-style house” next door. In short order, the husband and wife were walking through the emerging structure with its at-tile roof, clapboard siding and plantation shutters. 

Seeing only the exterior walls in place, the duo recognized the opportunity to customize the interior spaces to suit their needs and seized it. Essential to their lifestyle were private suites for each child as well as fluid circulation for entertaining as many as 40 people during the holiday season. Stofft answered those requests and situated the house to optimize views of the golf course. “The house was sited to take advantage of the double fairway and clubhouse,” he says. “There are expansive front and rear porches in keeping with West Indies plantation style.”