A Haven for Entertaining... Naturally
Charlie Banks smiles as he welcomes me from the porch of his Simmons Cove abode. “People often joke about the journey to our house,” he explains. “They wonder if they are on the right road.” Indeed, I’d wondered the same. After turning off Stucks Point, I drove the winding gravel road through the woods for about 10 minutes before finding the house behind a shallow mass of oak, pine, and dogwood trees. In spite of the house’s size, it’s mostly hidden from the road. That’s just one of the many ways in which Simmons Cove is different from other neighborhoods: There are not –nor will there ever be– clear-cut front yards.
Reclaimed wood is featured throughout the home.
Charlie and Cayci Banks moved into their newly constructed custom home in November of 2023 (and promptly hosted Thanksgiving), but in their minds’ eyes, they lived here for years. It was back in 2016 that they first decided they wanted to make the move from Newberry to Chapin. As the parents of four children, the programs and athletics of District Five Schools appealed to them. As active members of Chapin Christian Community Church, their community was already here. They also wanted to be on the lake. Well, Cayci wanted the water; Charlie wanted acreage. There would likely have to be a compromise between the two.
Years earlier, the pair had purchased lakefront property on RB Baker Road with plans to move there, but life threw them a curve ball when Cayci got pregnant with twins. It was best to stay in Newberry where her parents lived, so she could have help when she needed it. By the time the family was once again ready to move, their friends Ken and Dee Dee Simmons had begun developing a distinctly different kind of neighborhood. With both Cayci and Charlie wanting to be near friends, Cayci wanting to live on the lake, and Charlie wanting acreage, they found their perfect spot in Simmons Cove.
Unlike most people, the Banks did not build their house from a purchased floorplan. Instead, they took out some graph paper, and sketched their dream house to scale. “The house was designed with one question in mind: How do we want to live?” says Charlie. Starting with the heart of the home, the kitchen, living, and dining areas were mapped out, and added onto from there. The primary suite is on the first floor, but all the kids’ rooms are upstairs, giving everyone in the family their own havens. Their design was then brought to an architect, who drafted the blue prints. The resulting home stretches both wide and tall with an open floor plan, endless wood accents, hidden alcoves, and unique surprises.
Aside from the ample open space, one of the first things visitors would likely notice is the wood. The floors, ceilings, furniture, and the built ins are almost all wood. “The flooring and all of the ceiling is reclaimed white oak from thoroughbred horse fencing in Kentucky,” Charlie explains. He had heard that the fencing was being taken down, and he purchased a tractor-trailer load of it to have milled into the ceiling and flooring at Industrial Pine Product in Newberry. “I wanted something really unique. I wanted it to feel like it’s been here 100 years. A lot of knots in the wood went unfilled on purpose.” In the powder room on the main floor, the vanity is made of thermally modified reclaimed white oak, which is impervious to rot and water. The rustic feather wallpaper in the same room tips its hat to Charlie’s bird hunting hobby.
Almost all the wood furniture in the house was built by Cayci’s father, Dean Stokes, a master woodworker. He also built the solid walnut kitchen island with drawers and room for all four kids to sit. It’s complimented perfectly by the overhead glass dome pendants. “Every designer I’ve ever talked to has said that lighting and fixtures are the jewelry of the home,” Cayci explains, which is why the family splurged on the pieces. Reminiscent of a retro ice-cream shop, a large kitchen window opens outward and upward to connect the kitchen to the porch with bar seating. “The kids sit there and eat all the time.” Charlie explains. Because the couple really wanted outdoor living, the nearly 2,000 square foot screened in porch spans the entire width of the house. “This is our den about 70% of the year.” Charlie explains.
Unique details throughout the home combine synergistically to elevate its ambiance and customize the home. Softly glowing foot lights along the stairs ensure ease of passage. Built-in storage is placed anywhere there was empty space between walls. Any hardware that would be touched, like drawer pulls and door knobs feels substantial. Charlie opted for “the biggest fireplace that [he] could get”, and since the family moved in last November, they’ve had a fire almost daily throughout the winter. The primary suite features his and her bathrooms with a private outdoor shower that Charlie uses almost daily.
During the build, the couple admit to being “really, really really involved”. They even bought a house around the corner so they could be nearby to check in often, and it was good that they did. There were no fewer than 62 change orders throughout the job. (A change order is work that is either added or removed from the original scope of a project assigned by a contract that the contractor and client agreed to. An average number of change orders, according to Google is about six.) One change was the tile for the kitchen backsplash. It was originally supposed to be about a foot off the counter, but when the couple saw it going in, they soon realized that if it covered the entire wall, the kitchen would look much more uniform. With the years of dreaming of the house and the careful planning, it’s curious that there would be so many changes, but Charlie explains, “Sometimes things look different when you see them going in, and I never wanted to feel like, ‘I wish we had done something different’, or, ‘why didn’t I say something?’”. Other changes in the home included framing out the stove in the kitchen with walnut and using any otherwise-lost space for built in storage.
“All the decisions – even the little decisions – were big decisions” Cayci jokes. And because Cayci’s father was there to help not only add his master woodworking skills to their envisioned paradise, but inform them of what was possible, the resulting estate will surely be a family destination for reunions, parties and events for generations to come.
The Banks aren’t done yet. With a goal for creating the ultimate haven for entertaining, the family looks forward to the backyard’s completion, which will feature a pool, firepit, covered pavilion with a stage for live music, outdoor kitchen and TV area. At some point they even plan on putting in a basketball and pickleball court. With future memories being built down the long, private, gravel road among the trees, quiet, and nature of Simmons Cove, it’s clear that for the Banks family, the best is yet to be.
