Articles
Bringing home the SAM
Oswald Construction, Harwood Design Builders gain national recognition
By Margaret Anne Fehr
THE SAM - CONSIDER IT THE OSCAR equivalent of the Canadian Home Builders' Association. The coveted award honours outstanding performance by new home builders, renovators, residential developers and new home marketing professionals. This year it was Manitoba's time in the spotlight as Oswald Construction and Harwood Design Builders brought home the gold in their respective categories.
On Feb. 26th in Banff, AB, Ralph Oswald received the SAM for top place in the additions category and Wayne Sage received the SAM for the best kitchen renovations for 2011, the first time that Manitoba companies have captured No. 1 status among the national competition.
Ralph comments, "When I heard my name called, I was pretty ecstatic and real happy for everyone involved. We knew that the project we had in there was pretty unique and having looked at the past years' winners when I was deciding to enter, I never came across anything quite like what we did."
Ralph is referring to the 100 year old character home on Winnipeg's South Drive.
"The original 5500 square foot house was a Dutch Revival style with a gambrel roof and the couple's vision was to add a family room with the same barn- shaped profile over the garage, bringing the total square footage to around 8500 square feet. It had a lot of size and square footage going for it and I thought our chances would be fairly good, but you never know."
"All my guys who worked on it really enjoyed the project. They were ecstatic when they heard we actually won. Right now they're taking turns bringing the award home with them."
"I've got to say the clients were really great to work for. They really wanted to match the new addition to look like the old house. They were so passionate about the house, the shape of it, the age of it, and were willing to go the extra mile to have us do that. That was special as well."
Wayne Sage, owner of Harwood Design Builders garnered first place in the kitchen renovations category. "Winning this award is a credit to my staff and the people who work for me because they're the ones who did it. Last year we made the top 5 in Canada in this category and this year we are
No. 1. "We take a lot of pride in this accomplishment and we know this means we're going in the right direction."
Speaking of the winning kitchen renovation, Wayne says, "I put some of my own inspiration to it. I restructured the roof rafters and put an inverted vault up to house a big light fixture. It also features a huge Italian granite island, lots of specialty touches and it was all built with environmentally friendly products including eco-wood cabinets and natural granite and tile floors."
"While I had a couple of definite ideas on what I wanted to do, we retained Lisa Duxbury for the design development and product selections to pull it all together and we couldn't have been more happy with what she came up with!"
Wayne adds, "Winning this award separates Harwood as a solid, high-end renovation firm. We do this because we love it! It's very satisfying that our 30 years experience of doing this is recognized. We have every intention of being back at the SAM awards next year!"
Mike Moore, president of the Manitoba Home Builders' Association, gives full kudos to Oswald Construction and Harwood Design Builders for their prestigious SAM status.
“We're very proud of them here in Manitoba for what these two renovators have accomplished. We've been telling people that we're the best in Canada and now we have proof of it."
Commenting on Manitoba's first top prize wins at the CHBA, Mike says, "It's not from being beaten out in the past. Traditionally, Manitobans haven't done a lot of entering. We've always known that we have superior work here; every bit as good as what's going on in BC, Ontario and Atlantic Canada. I think this success will motivate other Manitoba renovators to take the leap as well. I definitely see that happening."