Somewhere out there in the hallowed halls of CHBA National, and the equally hallowed halls of the GVHBA, someone decided that March 29 Shall Be Housing Award Finalist Day, and an elite cabal sprang into action, bestowing finalist awards left and right, blasting off press releases, and churning out posts on social media.

Or not.

It's probably purely convenient coincidence that the list of finalists for the CHBA National Awards for Housing Excellence dropped on the same afternoon as the GVHBA Ovation Awards Finalist Soiree. We'd love to believe the former, but we figure that the latter is more likely. Speculation aside: on with the honours.

Project Mint's East Pender, which led off our Georgie finalists, showed up again in the Ovations: for Best Interior Design Display Suite and Best Townhouse/Rowhome Infill:

 Another Project Mint project, a lovely renovated 'atomic ranch' in Deep Cove for which we had to hose a substantial amount of snow off a big courtyard area during the shoot with hot water (that's a first) showed up as a finalist in Best Kitchen/Greatroom and Best Reno $200-399K:

Saint Construction's East Van Heritage, a Georgie finalist, was a finalist in the Ovations-only Best Heritage/Character Renovation, as well as the CHBA National Whole House $500-$1M category:

 The other Saint project we photographed, Ross Street Modern, was a finalist in Best Reno $400-$699K at the Ovations, and the Whole House $250-500K category at the CHBA Nationals.

Linhan Design (and 3 Dimension Construction)'s Family and Formal, another Georgie and CHBA Fraser Valley finalist, was also a finalist in Best New Kitchen Under $50K.

Mulberry's Eyremount picked up a goodly stack of finalist honours, including Best Special Feature (for the uber-cool car turntable, packing at least 4 parking spaces into the space of two), Best Custom Home Over $3 Million, Best Interior Design Custom Residence, and Best New Kitchen Over $100K. 

Hayer Builders Group and Fifth Avenue Marketing have been on an absolute tear this awards season as both finalists and winners at the CHBA Fraser Valley Awards, and the Georgie Awards. They continued it tonight with their Summit project, which was a finalist in the CHBA National Awards for Attached Homes – 1,500 square feet and over, and in the Ovations: Best Townhouse/Rowhome 1,500sf+, Best Interior Design Display Suite, Best New Kitchen Under $50K, Best Residential Community, Multi-Famly Home Builder of the Year:

One of the things we love about the Ovation Awards is its long time horizon: this year, projects completed in the last three years are eligible to enter. This sometimes means some cool surprises as projects we've photographed in the past for other awards programs suddenly pop up again at Finalists Night. This happened tonight: Tien Sher's Balance micro-loft project is a finalist (and since it's the only one, it's likely a winner by default) in the BC Housing Award for Innovative Choices) and Best Multi-Family Low Rise:

Another Tien Sher project, Jade, was a finalist in Best Townhouse/Row Home Less than 1,500 sqft. 

Are you looking to join this list next year? We're here to help. Check out our award resources...and get started!