About five years ago, on a balmy summer evening under the Central Florida sky, Meme Bernholz sprawled out in the courtyard of her family’s lakefront home and began howling at the moon.

It wasn’t the heat that provoked her. It wasn’t the wine or injury or insanity. And while this behavior might have seemed strange at any other family gathering, Bernholz was not, in fact, the “lone wolf.”

“My niece brought her boyfriend over for the weekend,” Bernholz recalls, “and we were all lying out on the tile — parents, grandparents, all of us. And we just started howling because the dogs would howl with us. My poor niece! She brought this guy home and her whole family is howling! But the tile is warm in the summertime at night, and it just feels great.”

Whatever it was that awakened Bernholz’ inner coyote that night is something you feel the moment you set foot on Lake Kerr Estate, a seven-plus-acre retreat in the Ocala National Forest owned by Jim and Yvonne Dykes. After traveling the world and living everywhere from Texas to Taipei, the Dykes purchased the property in 1992 and built their 7,722-square-foot custom home, complete with a guesthouse, a barn and some breathtaking views of the pristine spring-fed waters of Lake Kerr.

The couple considered building their home in Phoenix or Santa Fe, but because they both grew up in Umatilla and Jim is a University of Florida graduate/fanatic, Florida has always been home. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t bring a bit of the Southwest home with them.

From its construction materials to its interior furnishings, Lake Kerr Estate not only epitomizes Southwest style, it captures the vastness, the vibrant colors and the rugged earthiness that define the Southwest spirit. That influence is perhaps most apparent in the architecture, with its soaring, solid yellow pine ceilings (they reach as high as 20 feet in the great room), Spanish-tiled roof, and intricate plaster and beam work. Even the tray ceiling in the dining room is beamed. You just don’t see much of that in Florida. Or anywhere else for that matter.
“They couldn’t find anyone who could build the type of beam work they wanted,” says Barbara Jenness, a friend of the Dykes family, “so they hired the company that built Sea World. Their form and plaster work was done by a company that did parts of Disney.”

Equally exceptional are the home’s eight-foot, solid wood doors with custom hardware from Arizona. The first of these doors opens to the courtyard, a luxurious outdoor living area formed from wood and clay. The fossilized tiles were hand-sewn and quarried from Baja, Mexico. The outdoor kitchen is furnished with a rustic, redwood dining table and a teak bar with decorative carvings. The charcoal grill practically has its own chimney, and the heated pool, spa and waterfall are adorned with Arizona boulders hand-picked by Jim.

“Every Sunday night, Dad used to grill steaks and watch 60 Minutes out in the courtyard,” Burnholz says. “We do the big steam pots out here once a year with shrimp and lobster and crabs. We’ll even cook pigs on the grill. It’s the best!”

Indoor parties at the Dykes’ home are just as legendary, particularly those hosted on Saturday afternoons during the fall. Friends have nicknamed the estate “Gator Hole,” and with a 72-inch HD television with integrated audio system, and a wet bar the size of most kitchens, the Dykes’ great room is the perfect game-day gathering place. But in spite of that giant television, the unusually large fireplace remains the focal point of the room.

“We’re the type of people who will turn down the air conditioner to have a fire in the fireplace,” Bernholz says. “The thing I love about it is that it’s a fireplace you can actually sit on. It has the built-in adobe seating. We sit over there until our backs are almost on fire. It’s like, ‘OK, I can smell my sweater; it’s time to move.’”

Built-in, adobe-style seating, common to homes in New Mexico, is incorporated throughout the great room, where Venezuelan tile and one-of-a-kind artifacts add to the Southwest ambiance. The coffee and end tables are functional Native American drums, and the chandelier is made from 27 pairs and seven varieties of naturally shed antlers. The Dykes have filled their home with these priceless treasures: bronze sculptures by Dave McGary; an authentic Native American map painted on elk hide (you can see where the spear pierced the animal during the hunt); a cactus chandelier from Texas and framed scrolls from Taipei that tell stories of an ancient time.

“Mom and I both adhere to the policy that you don’t go walking into a Rooms to Go to buy stuff for your home,” Bernholz says. “It’s your lifetime. Everything you pick up I could tell you a story about. [My parents] just kind of pick up trinkets from everywhere they go.”

They take plenty of photos, too. Nearly every inch of wall space in the hallways is covered with scenes from family trips to Mexico and weddings and children in Halloween costumes. These photos give you a sense of the family’s adventurous streak, which they often indulge right in their own backyard.

“It’s like camp for grownups,” Bernholz says.

Lake Kerr Estate boasts an onsite tennis court, a special room for ping pong tournaments, a dock with several boats, walking paths and a bird park. Their three-stall barn, built in just 45 days by a former colleague of Jim’s, houses Jeeps and John Deers and Jet Skis. They even grow their own produce in an organic garden, where asparagus shoots straight up out of the ground and fresh rosemary tickles your nose from yards away. And what better place to make a meal of all those wonderful spices and vegetables than the Dykes’ kitchen? It has top-of-the-line professional appliances including a commercial Wolf six-burner gas range and SubZero side-by-side refrigerator, as well as three ovens, refrigerated drawers, and the list goes on and on.

Despite its state-of-the-art equipment, the kitchen remains unpretentious and inviting with its stunning view of Lake Kerr and warm, rustic Saltillo tile bar, which seats up to five.  Saltillo tiles are natural, quarried clay tiles hand-made by Mexican artisans. The clay is found almost exclusively in north Central Mexico, but you will see Saltillo tile in a lot of the homes in New Mexico. The tiles are hand-shaped, dried in the sun and then stacked in a kiln for firing. These processes make the tiles prone to striping, cracks and bumps. So each one has its own unique character.  

“One of the Saltillo tiles on the kitchen countertop has a paw print in it,” Bernholz says. “An animal must have stepped in it while the tile was drying. When the Mexicans are making it, animals are walking by, and that’s what happens. In every stack, there’s almost always one [paw print].”

It’s little details and stories like these that make Lake Kerr Estate so special. Although the Dykes no longer use it as their primary residence, the family spends many a weekend entertaining friends in the courtyard or just relaxing out on the dock. The home is as elegant as an Arizona sunset, as sturdy as a cactus and as comfortable as a worn-in cowboy hat. And even with its impressive inventory of amenities and ancient artifacts, the Dykes’ memories are its most priceless asset.

 “You can just feel the energy in this house,” Bernholz says. “It’s always going to be home for me.”

backyard oasis
The Dykes own one of the few private residences along the unspoiled, crystal clear waters of Lake Kerr, located west of Salt Springs just 27 miles from Ocala. It covers approximately 2,830 acres beneath the canopy of the Ocala National Forest, and you won’t find one wastewater treatment facility within five miles.

South by Southwest
From the three-stall barn, built in just 45 days by a colleague of Jim’s, to the foyer full of Native American artifacts, to the Saltillo-tiled kitchen and hand-sewn, fossilized clay in the courtyard,  every room and accent at Lake Kerr Estate has a story, many of which were inspired by the spirit of the Southwest.

Art & Architecture
Top: This bronze sculpture by renouned artist Dave McGary is just one of the many priceless treasures found throughout the Dykes’ home.

Bottom: Lake Kerr Estate showcases stunning, Southwest-style architecture rarely found in Florida homes, including this intricate, beamed, tray ceiling the family dining room.