Lexington-Fayette.

Lexington-Fayette is home base, and the Bluegrass region's largest city sets the pace for the kind of work homeowners here ask for: kitchen and bath remodels in the bungalows and brick ranches ringing downtown, additions on the newer subdivisions pushing out toward New Circle Road, and basement finishing in the split-levels built through the 1970s and 80s.

Lexington's mix of century-old housing stock near downtown and newer construction on the edges means every project starts with a walkthrough, not a template. Knob-and-tube wiring and plaster walls show up in one house and nowhere near it, and a general contractor coordinating every trade keeps that variability from becoming a homeowner's problem to manage.