THE CONSTRUCTION SOURCE CANADA response was everything he could have hoped for. “They loved it,” he says. “They loved their home. They loved the quality. They loved the details. I don’t think they were surprised, though, because we had worked together 10 years prior on another beautiful house, and when it came time to do this one they came back. To me, that’s the best possible nod for a builder – when someone comes back and says, ‘I want to do it again.’” The national award from the CHBA was also meaningful, Mike adds. For a long time he had previously avoided the awards circuit, but after joining the association at the encouragement of peers, he discovered that the CHBA’s peerjudged process resonated with him in a way other recognition programs hadn’t. Over the years, he has accumulated over 15 award victories. The first national win came in 2017, for a modern farmhouse known as ‘Township Custom Residential’ – a project that took him all the way to Newfoundland for the ceremony. He almost didn’t go. “My nephew, who’s a builder in Saskatoon, told me to take my head out of my ass and go celebrate being in the top 10,” Mike recalls. “That’s a great achievement on its own. So I went – and I ended up winning. That was an eye-opener.” The Lindell Beach-house win felt equally meaningful, and for the same reason – it was peer recognition, earned on the merits of craft and process, judged by people who understand what it actually takes. “I love the fact that it’s my peers looking at it, judging the detail, judging the
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTYzNTg=