It's a Winner!

Last night was the Webster Groves Awards of Excellence Ceremony. We (well, mostly I) had submitted our addition for the architecture award. There were four categories to choose from when submitting, including craftsmanship, architecture, landscape architecture and historic preservation. In addition to the completed application, I supplied before and after photos of the house, drawings, and a narrative describing the project. I wanted to emphasize that we tried to not only ensure that the addition was architecturally sensitive to the time period of the house, but also that we were as environmentally conscious as we could be in the construction. We re-used trim, windows, doors, sinks and cabinets when appropriate. The siding for the new addition was made from cement board instead of virgin wood, and the deck is constructed of recycled plastic. During the awards ceremony, they showed slides of each project which won an award. For each category, the Honorable Mentions received a certificate and the Award of Excellence received a beautiful plaque. The best part was hearing the comments of the judges, as you could tell they really "got" what we tried to accomplish with our project. When we went up to accept our award, I said "if the kitchen is truly the heart of the home, then our kitchen was like the Grinch's - it was two sizes too small. Following completion of the addition, it grew three sizes." It seemed an appropriate analogy as we near the holiday season. As an added bonus to the evening, our landscape architecture firm, SWT Design, won an Honorable Mention for landscape architecture for their design of "BackFlip." A satisfying evening all around.