A home designed by a local architect and built by a Brackendale-based company just keeps racking up the accolades for its creators.
In fact, the 1,900-square-foot timberframe home designed by Graph-Tech Designs' Jamie Martin and built by Alpine Timberframe and Design for clients in Tofino actually won two top awards on successive weekends: a National SAM award given out by the Canadian Home Builders' Association (CHBA) and a Georgie Award handed out at a gala ceremony in Vancouver by the CHBA's British Columbia chapter.
Alpine Timberframe president Richard Lutz said that while the judges didn't specify why they selected the home as Best Single Family Home Under 2,000 Square Feet (Georgie) and Best Single Family Home Under 2,500 Square Feet (SAM), such awards are generally handed out for a combination of high-quality craftsmanship and leading-edge environmental features.
Last September, the same home won a Built Green B.C. Award and was a finalist in another category for its energy efficiency and other "green" features. Lutz said the home boasts ground-source or "passive geothermal" heating as well as a heat-recovering air exchange unit that keeps the house well-ventilated while warming the incoming air.
The builders and clients also chose not to have carpeting in the house and chose paint, flooring and other materials that don't off-gas, making for a healthier interior environment, Lutz said.
The home's modest size also was a choice made by the clients, both to reduce their home's environmental footprint and to suit their lifestyle.
"The clients eventually want to retire there," Lutz aid. "It's a timberframe, post-and-beam house, all on one level except for a guest bedroom in the loft.
"It's about 1,900 square feet. They didn't want a large house for when they get older, and from an environmental point of view, do we really need 5,000-square-foot homes?"
The timber work in the home is all Douglas fir, most of it sourced locally on Vancouver Island. The roof decking and siding are all cedar from a Tofino-based company that salvages logs from blowdowns. The flooring comes from big-leaf maple trees (one of two maple species native to this part of the world) from a company in Parksville.
The foundation is insulated concrete form - essentially foam blocks that are built together and then filled in with concrete.
In addition to himself and Martin, Lutz said about a half dozen local workers worked on the project, along with a number of subcontractors. While Lutz himself has been building homes for about 20 years, Alpine Timberframe and Design has been in business for about six years. This is the first time it has won Georgie or SAM honours.
"It was a pretty special house. It was the first time we've ever won anything and to win both a SAM award and a Georgie award is really quite an honour," he said. "Everybody involved actually won the award. It wasn't just me."
