The key to country living

When country girl Karen Ciemniecki and her husband, fishing fiend Ray Ciemniecki, decided they wanted to build their dream house, location was a priority.

“But we both had different dreams,” Karen Ciemniecki said.

She had grown up on a dairy farm in New Jersey and yearned for space to spread out with their family and raise animals. Ray previously lived in West Bradenton on a canal and wanted easy fishing access.

They managed to find a compromise.

When they built their home off State Road 64 in east Manatee County in 1997, few homes existed and only one deed-restricted community. Housing developments are beginning to surround their once-rural property.

Because they had no homeowners’ restrictions, the Ciemnieckis wanted to design a Key West-style home, complete with a cupola on top of their metal roof.

They also painted their home bright yellow, before switching to green and, four years ago, to its current seaside aquamarine.

For Karen, the property held another special quality. It had previously been part of a dairy farm.

“When we moved here, there were cows everywhere; it was like being home,” she said.

Ray got his wish, too. The couple built a pond, and Ray made sure it was stocked with fish.

Their dream home didn’t come without difficulty. The metal roof was built without the correct type of screws.

“Metal roofs weren’t ‘in’ when we built,” she said.

During a summer storm four years after the Ciemnieckis moved in, the screws became loose and the whole roof peeled off the home and landed in the front yard. Karen said she and her family had been away at the time, and her neighbor called to tell them the bad news.

“We had to rebuild the whole interior (due to rain damage),” she said.

Since then, their home has become paradise. Keeping with the coastal design, the interior décor is reminiscent of a Gulf-side cottage, with coastal color schemes, sea creature sculptures and marine art gracing the living spaces of the four-bedroom home.

The couple raised their two daughters, Katie and Beth, in the home, and Karen, a 4-H club leader and former FFA teacher, got her wish of having horses, pigs and cattle on their land.

“We wanted room,” she said.

She said her husband has settled into the country life, but he gets out to the Gulf with his boat whenever he has an opportunity to go fishing.

“I think he actually likes living in the county,” she said.