While the local SAMs are just around the corner, several local builders, renovators and industry execs have already been honoured at the highest level – the National SAM Awards – and will head into the local contest with a well-deserved sense of accomplishment under their toolbelts.

Beautiful Lake Louise was the backdrop for the award ceremony, held the evening of Feb. 25 in conjunction with the 63rd annual Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA) weekend-long national conference. Calgary blew the roof off the rest of the country going into the awards, with 10 local companies securing spots in the Top Five in roughly half of 22 categories – for a total of 17 finalist nods. At this highest of levels, it truly is an honour just to be nominated in a coveted competition of such calibre.

Albi Homes, Sabal Crafted Homes and Morrison Mountain Homes were among the city’s winners in National SAM Awards, showing Calgary builders not only stack up well against each other and their provincial rivals, but they are also among the country’s best, as recognized by their peers.

Sabal Crafted Homes
If you build it, they will come may be true, but it’s easier to get people there with creative marketing. Nowhere is this more a reality than in the competitive homebuilding market that seems to be heating up across the country with no end in sight.

Sabal Crafted Homes, of the Hopewell Group of Companies,  proved tops in this tough arena, with two marketing nods at the National SAMs – one for Best Print Ad (featuring a curvy female toolbelt-sporting torso), and a second for Best Direct Mail for a fashion magazine-like scaled-down catalogue of Sabal show homes and décor tips. Sabal’s marketing mastermind, Chris Lu, couldn’t be more thrilled with the outcome, he says.

“The first award of the night was called and it was us, and then the second one. It was awesome,” says the marketing manager, noting the stiff competition in the industry across the country. “It was mostly high-profile loft projects in Toronto we were up against. I thought we would win one, but two is really unexpected. It kind of validates you and your hard work over the year.”

Along with nods for its expertise in marketing and building and design, Alberta took away several other kudus from the mountain conference. Among them, the Calgary Region Home Builders’ Association’s (CRHBA) first lady, Executive Officer Donna Moore, accepted the Susan Chambers Award for non-dues revenue achievements, on behalf of the CRHBA – an honour CHBA-Alberta received last year. It’s nice to see it will stay in the province again this year!

CHBA-Alberta (the new name for the Alberta Home Builders’ Association as of last year) was also recognized by its housing sector peers across the nation, with Grant Ainsley, current executive officer and former president of the association, netting the Association Communication Award for the organization’s success at spreading its message among members.

And local veteran reno guru David Litwiller of Litwiller Developments proved he can not only tear it down with the best of them, but he can also build relationships across the country with top remodellers, when presented with the Canadian Renovators Award for his volunteer efforts in the field, both locally and nationwide. “I am honoured and humbled,” he says of his massive first-time national kudos.

The road to the award was a busy one for Litwiller, who meets with the national council four times a year as the Alberta representative promoting professional renovation Canada-wide, but says “it sure is educational working with the level of professional renovators that I have been fortunate enough to in Canada – they’ve taught me a lot.”

Other Alberta honorees included CRHBA president and Cardel Homes’ top gun Ryan Ockey, who garnered the CHBA’s Award of Honour, as did Edmonton’s (ERHBA) president Peter Jackson.

Congrats to all the National SAM winners and nominees, both locally and across Alberta. Can’t wait to see how the city’s best in the industry stack up at the CRHBA’s SAM Awards on April 8!


Albi Homes
Albi took the hardware for two of four SAMs it was nominated for – a design win in the Production Homes (over 2,200 square feet) category by its marvelous Monticino show home, a former model address which sold for $1.5 million in the coveted lake and golf community of Heritage Pointe. Ironically, one of the top-notch digs the address edged out was another Albi show home, the Breckenridge in Spring Willow Estates.

The mainstay builder also stacked up tops against some worthy Canadian competition, which included Jayman’s well-crafted Cranston show home, the Shiraz, with a win by its Valley Ridge show home, the Barrington, in the production homes (1,500 to 2,200 square feet) category.

Morrison Mountain Homes
Meanwhile a Morrison Mountain Homes’ luxurious custom model netted top honours in the Custom Homes (under 2000 square feet) category, beating out Jayman MasterBUILT and Shane Homes, who were also finalists in the tough contest.

The winning entry, the Todd-Nally residence, is a unique sprawling home in Canmore’s Three Sisters Mountain Village, brimming with peak window to maximize Rocky Mountain views, and punctuated by scores of fir timber beams, natural stone, and alder cabinetry for an overall rustic feel, says Dave Gladney, of Morrison Homes. “One of my favourite rooms in this house was a clawfoot tub and a slate shower.”

Gladney says, while any accolades are welcome and appreciated, winning at the national level (now three years in a row in some capacity) is beyond comparison. “There were three custom design categories for the whole country, and to be recognized in one of them is quite impressive – the national SAM committee has been very kind to us.”

And he says the best part of acquiring accolades at this level is the well-deserved recognition for the Morrison’s staff’s hard work, especially designers who are imperative in the homebuilding process. “It’s more of a satisfaction of a job well done for everyone. The local SAM Awards are more consumer-driven, but at the national level it really is a different feeling to win,” says the VP of Sales & Marketiing, adding “we did have a little ceremony at the office on Monday.”