In-Town Living With a Country Feel
PCI Builders Combines Historical Accuracy and Modern Convenience in this Craftsman-Style Home in the Heart of the Triad.
By Kimberley Wray
To get a sense of just how deep PCI Builders’ roots run in Kernersville, N.C., just look around. Their precise and caring hand is evident in the dozens of businesses and homes the company has constructed throughout the past 30 years. Even the local Farmer’s Market and the interior spaces of the new Botanical Garden bears the mark of these civic-minded builders.
No fly-by-nights these. Indeed, the community is at the forefront of everything PCI Builders does. “We’ve got a great downtown. We’ve got great schools. I’ve put my roots down in this town,” says partner Chris Thompson. “My kids are going to grow up here.”
His partner (and brother-in-law) Greg Ciener, agrees. “The community is special to us; it is something we’ve invested in.” In fact, the family is still as excited about Kernersville as they were when patriarch Paul J. Ciener built his Ford dealership here nearly half a century ago.
Today Greg Ciener serves as president, while Thompson handles design and project management at the firm. Great-grandson of a master carpenter and the son of a computer sales tech and a successful real estate professional, it was clear early-on that building and technology were in Thompson’s genes.
On the Board of Directors of the Winston-Salem Home Builder’s Association, and a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Tree Commission, Thompson has a passion for building with an eye toward sustainability, both in his hometown and across the Triad area. So much so, that he collaborated with the Mayor and the Kernersville Board of Alderman to place an incentive on green residential and commercial construction, urging the board to pass a resolution offering building permit rebates for those seeking to build green.
The PCI offering in the Parade of Homes is a distillation of their family values, a 2,800-plus-square-foot Craftsman style home in the Macy Lakes subdivision. As a general rule, Parade homes feature amenities far beyond the norm since builders and their suppliers use the homes as a showcase for their particular areas of expertise. As the Home Builders Association of Winston-Salem’s Spring Association home, the Macy Lakes property showcases the products and services of many local companies–making it what some would call the crème-de-la-crème of Parades!
An Energy Star and Certified Green home that combines historically accurate styling that is true to the Kernersville area with low-cost, trouble-free operation, the Macy Lakes home would look right at home in any historic district in the Triad. But make no mistake: This is not your grandfather’s home. Maximized by Thompson’s computer-aided drafting and AutoCad skills, there is no wasted space here, so the house feels even more spacious .
Features of the four bedroom, three-and-a-half bath Craftsman-style home include a double-sided fireplace that faces both kitchen and living room, stained Douglas fir coffered ceilings, and Craftsman-style wainscoting in the dining room capped with a continuous plate rack. The fir trim continues throughout the house, stained or painted as appropriate. The true beauty of the material is showcased in the stairway, faithfully reproduced in the Craftsman style, but capped by a PCI signature: a lighted finial on the newel post. Even the window panes are in the local turn-of-the-century Craftsman style, as are the half-masonry front columns. Such attention to detail is a hallmark throughout the one-and-one-half story home.
The Macy Lakes location, which Ciener describes as “PCI’s jewel,” is a large part of the home’s charm. Located one mile from downtown Kernersville’s Botanical Garden and the Fourth of July Park, the development is a 24-lot subdivision situated on 12 acres of old farmland populated with mature oak and maple trees adjacent to Old Kernersville Lake Park. Named for Chris Thompson’s six-year-old daughter Macy, the subdivision offers in-town living with the feel of the country, right in the heart of Kernersville and the heart of the Triad. “It’s quiet, private and secluded, but it’s not hard to get to or even distant,” Ciener says. “Even so, you feel like you’re in another part of town when you’re here.”
“PCI Builders is the land developer here at Macy Lakes and we’ve built five homes here,” says Thompson. “We take great pride in the subdivision, and we hope people can see that in our homes as well.”
PCI, in association with American Builder’s Marketing Group, has produced a half-hour infomercial on their business, featuring Macy Lakes and their spectacular Parade home. Look for “Today’s Builder,” Saturdays at 8:30 a.m. on channels 75/70 in Winston-Salem and channel 69 in Greensboro. The program includes testimonials from the executive director of the Kernersville Chamber of Commerce and satisfied PCI customers, along with detailed info on the materials and sub-contractors that are responsible for building PCI homes. The program can also be viewed at www.pcibuildersinc.com
