The brand-new home, located at 898 Auburn Bay Boulevard in the southeast community of Auburn Bay, is a two-storey, 2,334-square-foot model Cardel calls the Empress II. Just on the cusp of Calgary, Auburn Bay provides a peaceful respite from the hectic city and is an ideal community for families.

With a retail value of over $729,000, this home features the best of the best when it comes to furnishings, décor and construction, demonstrating innovation that is tailored to the Calgary market.

“The Empress II is only 28 feet wide and is another example of how Cardel is able to create beautiful character-filled estate homes that can be built on today’s narrower lots,” says Mike Selinger, Cardel’s vice-president of sales and marketing.

A colour palette of warm browns and other earth tones inside and out makes everyone who enters feel welcome and lends the house a feeling of comfort reminiscent of a lakeside cottage. The main floor features oak floors throughout and two fireplaces, one in the great room and a second in the dining area, an unusual touch sure to make family meals all the more cosy and memorable.

The kitchen is a gourmet chef’s dream, with stainless steel appliances and a natural gas cook top. A large island offers plenty of counter space, a double sink and a breakfast bar, and a wall of floor-to-ceiling cupboards and drawers replaces a corner pantry and ensures you’ll never run out of storage space. The cream cabinets are fashionably antiqued with a subtle rusty stain that evokes an old-fashioned country kitchen. Adjacent to the kitchen is the great room, which is flooded with natural light from the tall windows framing the fireplace. Completing the main floor is a powder room and a flex room.

Upstairs, the home has the luxury of a large bonus room with enough seating for the whole family. One of the home’s most striking features is the upper floor balcony, giving the home’s appearance so much character from the outside, and offering a special retreat from the inside. Balconies are so rarely found in new homes these days, and its inclusion builds on the home’s unique appeal.

Three bedrooms upstairs count among them two generous children’s rooms and a master bedroom with a decadent four-poster bed as its focal point.

Meanwhile, the master bath has a glass-enclosed shower stall with a massaging showerhead, a separate soaker tub and a double vanity. Who needs the spa when all your favourite amenities to pamper are only steps from your bedside?

This isn’t the first year Cardel has built a home for the STARS Lottery—many may remember last year’s striking home in Evergreen, or the other homes they have generously provided over the last eight years. Cardel, one of Calgary’s best-known home builders, takes its community involvement seriously.

“STARS is important to Cardel because our company and trades firmly believe in the value that the STARS service provides to the Calgary community,” says Selinger. “The project is also a lot of fun because our design team gets to experiment with some innovative ideas like the nine-foot upper floor concept we built in the 2008 home.”

Selinger also notes, “Cardel couldn’t have done it alone,” and is grateful to its partners in the project, offering “a very special thank you to Carma and the Cardel trades and suppliers team that make this project possible.”

Thousands of people owe their lives to STARS (Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service) and its familiar bright red helicopters. STARS also provides emergency rescue training to its crews and other emergency services, and is a worthy cause supported largely by its annual charity lottery, one of the most popular in the province. Proceeds from this year’s lottery—STARS’ 15th—will be used in part to fund two new rescue helicopters for Alberta which will have a much greater range of flight, providing lifesaving services to more of the population.

Tickets for the STARS Lottery are now sold out, but the show home is still available for viewing on weekends from 1 to 5 p.m. If you were lucky enough to get a ticket for this year’s draw, you might shortly be moving into this incredible new home!  NL