Daniel Island house tour benefits library

Four homes on Daniel Island's opposite ends will offer a view of the people who call the master-planned, live-and-work-community home.

The homes are part of the Oct. 17 Daniel Island Harvest Tour of Homes hosted by the Friends of the Daniel Island Library to benefit the local branch of the Berkeley County Library.

Two homes are in the Daniel Island Park neighborhood, and two more are in Smythe Park near Daniel Island Elementary and Middle School.

The Smythe Lake home of Beth and Mike Jeresaty is perhaps the most distinctive. The Jeresatys often see people standing in their yard and posing for pictures in front of their contemporary Victorian home that has gables and a tower room. Beth Jeresaty said she's heard some call it the Harry Potter house.

"It's a landmark for people," Mike Jeresaty said.

The tour will be the first time the Jeresatys will invite the curious inside the home they moved into in summer 2007. The Jeresatys bought the home after Mike Jeresaty sold his health care company, Garnet Health and Insurance Services in New Hampshire.

Beth Jeresaty said she found it as they walked around Smythe Lake. They walked up the steps of the vacant home and peeked in the door.

"I said, 'Mike, This is my house,' " she recalls.

Beth Jeresaty decorated the home with the help of Angie Artugis of Eye For It in Charleston using local shops and artisans.

One of the homes on tour in Daniel Island Park was custom built by Bette and Lee Atkins on Ralston Creek and is full of an eclectic mix of art and antiques.

The Atkinses, originally from Charlotte, worked with their architect for a year to create a three-story Federal-style home with Georgian influences.

"We wanted it to look like it had been here forever," Bette Atkins said.

The study, for example, was designed around two antique hardwood panels the Atkinses found in England.

They planned to build the house as a weekend home on the creek. But in December, Lee Atkins, a Charlotte native who retired from the chemical dye business, and his wife of Jacksonville, Fla., became permanent Daniel Island residents.

"We loved it so much," Bette Atkins said of the home.

Lorraine and Rick Vale, most recently of Rhode Island, also found a permanent home in a Grove Park townhome in Daniel Island Park.

Lorraine, a former jewelry designer for Swarovski, and husband Rick of Daniel Island Real Estate moved to the island from Mount Pleasant three years ago. Lorraine Vale, who runs an interior design business, Home Interiors, then decorated the townhome with a French modern look before they settled in.

Teresa and Jay Yates, who moved from North Carolina, settled on Daniel Island after poring over other areas in the Lowcountry and found the fresh look of the island appealing. Teresa, an artist and mother, and Jay, a Jersey Mike's Subs franchisee coordinator, moved into an apartment while waiting for their builder to finish the three-story stucco home in Smythe Park.

Teresa, a former kitchen designer, has focused on rearing her two children and painting since making the move to Daniel Island. She had a hand in designing the kitchen using custom-made Amish cabinetry. Her art and that of others is displayed in the home.

Mary Ann Solberg, chairwoman of the home tour and a member of Friends of the Daniel Island Library, said the tour shows the variety of homes and lifestyles to be found on the island, but supporting the library is the point of the tour.

"In time of budget cuts, it's more important to support the local library," Solberg said.

Local authors Ken Burger of The Post and Courier, Richard Cote, Beth Webb Hart and Andrea Weathers will sign books in the tour.

A Floral Affair, Flowers By Murray and Snapdragon Designs, three local florists, will decorate the homes and tabletops. Homes can be visited in any order, but refreshments will be served at the Jeresaty home on Smythe Lake.

Reach Jessica Johnson at 937-5921 or jjohnson@postandcourier.com.