T
UCKED UNDER THE CANOPY OF THE BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS, THE HOME OF DENNIS AND JUDIE WINKLEMAN IS AS WARM AND WELCOMING AS THE WINKLEMANS THEMSELVES.
The vision for the French Country beauty in the Cliffs Valley community was honed through years of magazine clipping, open house visits and fine home tours. The Winklemans cannot say enough about the team of craftsmen assembled by Bergeron Custom Homes to take their vision from dream to domicile. Having lived in the Greenville area for a few years in the late 1980s, the Pennsylvania natives were well acquainted with the Upstate’s charms, and always said they would return here some day. Little did they know it would follow a nearly 30-year stint in Wisconsin, which was a surprise to the family that had grown accustomed to relocating every five years or so. As luck would have it, the Winklemans’ eldest daughter chose to stay put in the South after graduating from Winthrop. While visiting
her and her husband one Christmas, the Winklemans spent the day looking around the Cliffs Communities and ended up buying a lot. That was 2005, and it would be four more years before they got serious about interviewing builders. They ultimately hired Jason Bergeron, with Bergeron Custom Homes, who tapped local designer Mitch Lehde to handle the architectural end of things. “We had built seven houses before this, so we weren’t new to construction,” Dennis said. “But I think the thing that impressed us about both of them was we had this little black book we’d been writing ideas down in for years. They were probably the best I’ve ever worked with at taking a concept and translating it – Mitch translating it to drawings and Jason turning it into stone and concrete and everything else.”
(opposite) Though the Winkleman children are all grown, distinct moments of their childhood have been captured forever thanks to three exquisitely detailed bronze sculptures in the back yard. An Atlanta artist worked from dozens of photographs to create these one-of-a-kind pieces. Dennis and Judie now share the house most often with their Greater Swiss Mountain dog, Sophie. SUMMER 2014
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