2007 House of the Year Winners

latest news and views from the team at urbo homes

We did it again!

An enjoyable challenge and great team work is how urbo homes Regional Director Simon Crawford describes the home his team built which took out top honours in the National Registered Master Builders 2007 House of the Year Awards.

urbo’s win in the $450K-$600K category at the National House of the Year Awards ceremony held at Sky City on Saturday 26th October have left him speechless and the homeowners overjoyed.

The homeowners John and Philippa Monteith are speaking with gratitude: “We thank and congratulate the urbo homes team for their great work, attitude and service.

We met with the design team on site and talked about creating our dream home. We were blown away when they came back and had captured everything we had discussed. Simon then stitched it all together seamlessly and made it work. We love our home. It meets our goal of good use of space, easy entertainment and superb indoor/outdoor flow. We wanted a house which showed our personality and catered for our family requirements and with this award we know we have succeeded.”

Award winning features

The winning entry is unique in its contemporary design being a combination of vertical shiplap cedar, solid plaster and local volcanic stone to entrance pillar.

The Monteith’s enjoy entertaining, and a particular requirement was the open plan living, indoor/outdoor flow to a covered outdoor dining area with fireplace. A real feature is the exposed macracarpa rafters and oversized rustic posts. Add a good wine and a few friends, this is the place to be.The large pivot entrance door opens to the main living area, which has a raking ceiling with a tongue and groove finish, and window over lights to provide extra natural light to the room. The designer kitchen is well placed in this room, opening onto a hardwood servery via bifold windows for easy entertaining. If you are wanting timeout, then the corner window seat is an ideal spot for reading a book in the sun, or viewing TV from the separate home theatre room. This home is a true retreat.

   Need Inspiration? Check out our website at www.urbo.co.nz.

Top quality

Gold Awards are judged to be at least 80% higher than the industry standard.Silver Awards are judged to be at least 65% higher than the industry standard.Bronze Awards are judged to be at least 50% higher than the industry standard.All Gold Award winners from around NZare then collated to determine the top100 scoring Gold Award Winners. The top 100 are then presented with a National Gold Reserve Award and are Judged for the National Finals.

Understanding the Award Criteria

Simon Crawford, who has been in the building industry for 20 years, said “the national win was the pinnacle of his career. It’s a huge win for urbo homes and shows that our team can line up with the best nationally.”

Simon also paid tribute to the subcontractors who worked on the home. “This award is as much theirs asit is ours.  At urbo we have some of the best tradesmen in the country, capable of building quality homes that can stand out from the crowd.”

urbo’s  abilities have been distinguished in the most rigorous competitive awards. Among other achievements, we were National Winner of the 2006 House of the Year Competition $250-$350k category; Gold Reserve winners in the Master Build Awards 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004; and took the Supreme Award in the Taupo Master Builders Competition in 2005.

“This award is testament to the high standards of excellence in design and construction.” says urbo homes Managing Director Martin Dobbe.

Urbo Offices

Bay of Plenty

11 Stafford Rise, Lynmore

PO Box 7376,Te Ngae, Rotorua

Ph 07 345 7761  Fax 07 345 4461

Waikato