It’s one of our favourite nights of the year: the Georgie Awards. Our clients did well this year: a large percentage of our entrants made it to the finals, and a couple of them took home some nice golden hardware! So, who won?

Project Mint - Urban Eco Barn

This project not only oozed architectural cool, it pulled off the clever feat of packing in at least separable units (three in the main house as an n-plex, plus a clever laneway that I wish I could move into…) onto one property while fitting into the scale of its mostly-smaller-residential Renfrew Heights neighbourhood. This project was a finalist in the Ovation Awards last year (for Best Small-Scale Home, Best Townhouse/Rowhome, and the BC Housing Award for Excellence in Innovative Housing). This “gentle density” approach gave it Best Multi-Family Townhouse (Infill; 6 Units and Under), and placed it as a finalist for Multi-Family Kitchen New and Custom Home 500-899K. Congratulations to Babak, Nick, and the crew at Project Mint and Nick Bray Architecture!

My House Design/Build - Caribbean Dream

We’re big fans of great renovation projects—as much as we love that new-home smell, there’s something special about photographing a project where you just see all the love and care that has been put into customizing a place specifically for its occupants…as well as packing in plenty of energy-efficient healthy upgrades. This was certainly on full display with this extensive Langley renovation. In addition to having an absolutely gorgeous kitchen/great-room with all the fixings—and a stunning view over the Fraser River and up to the North Shore Mountains, this renovation was full of features made just for the family who owns it. The owners’ Manx cats even got their own features, with built-in cat doors in the ensuite to hide the litter box (and let’s not forget: mounting the toilet paper holders at a 45 degree angle…you fellow cat owners know the utility of that!). To top it off? The two kids’ bedrooms, each featuring ladder-accessible lofts, including a boy’s room in an absolutely stunning Star Wars theme complete with a light-up Darth Vader to greet you. The judges loved this project as much as we did, handing it the Best Kitchen Renovation Over $125K and Best Certified Whole House Renovation. Cheers to the My House Design/Build Team!