Kitchens worthy of a Gables address.

The classic Coral Gables kitchen problem is architectural. Merrick-era homes in Riviera, the Country Club Section, and the French Village were designed when kitchens were service rooms, tucked behind the dining room and sized for one cook who was not the homeowner. Today the kitchen is where everyone stands. So the high-end kitchen remodeling project here is usually a rescue mission: absorbing a butler's pantry or breakfast room, opening a masonry wall to the dining room, and putting a proper island where a bank of 1950s cabinets used to be.

An interior-only kitchen remodel in Coral Gables goes to the city's Development Services Department for permits and plan review without a stop at the Board of Architects. Change anything visible from outside, such as enlarging the window over the sink, venting through the facade, or cutting a new door to the terrace, and Board review comes first. Kitchens in designated historic homes may also need a Certificate of Appropriateness for exterior changes. Then there is the unglamorous part: plenty of older Gables houses need electrical service upgrades before they can run a modern appliance package, and we fold that work into the same permit.

PGX builds kitchens the way cabinetmakers wish contractors would: measured twice, sequenced properly, stone templated after the cabinets are set rather than before. You get a fixed written scope, a supervisor on site every day, and dust protection that treats the rest of your house as the finished product it is. Over 20-plus years in South Florida we have delivered more than 150 remodels and additions, all permitted and inspected, and a Gables kitchen gets nothing looser than that standard.