Crooked Lake is on the Lake Wales ridge that runs down the spine of the Florida peninsula, our modest escarpment. It is near Frostproof, Florida in the area where early citrus farmers could avoid the seasonal freezes of Orange County to the north.

The house will sit on the water, under live oaks, and approached through the groves; perched high to discourage whipsnakes and panthers, and with a long screened porch on the water to protect against the half million mosquitoes afforded each Floridian as a birthright. There is a two way fall across the site that flatters the simplest houses.

We had to think about how building in the vast agricultural interior of Florida might be different than building on the coastal plains and migrating barrier islands where everyone in Florida crowds and preens. A house with a carport and a long screen porch has to be judged by a slightly different scorecard.