MERT’S EXPLOITS, ADVENTURES AND TRIUMPHS

IKB received Regional Contractor of the Year for Home Theater and Media Rooms as well as Best Residential Bath over $60,000 in Region VII in the NARI competition. The Builders Choice Awards again gave the Grand Award to Bayside By William Lyon Homes and KTGY Architects for Best Attached Community of the Year. NARI (National Association of the Remodeling Industry) awarded IKB (Ilona Kitchen & Bath) 1st Place for a media room plus 1st place and Judge’s Choice for a residential bath. The Builders Choice Awards, a national competition sponsored by Builder Magazine, awarded the Grand Award to Hunt Hale, Jones Architects for the Alabama Street Lofts and a Merit Award to Oak Commons by O’Brien Group. Mert now has a morgue to his credit. Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose just opened its new coronor’s facility remodeled by XL Construction. We were there to document the new tenant improvements and have the photos to prove it. Our Gold Nugget award record also improved over last year. Gold Nugget is a large super regional home design and merchandising competition under the auspices of the Pacific Coast Builders Conference (PCBC) and the industry magazine BUILDER. Entries come from 14 states and any country bordering on the Pacific Ocean. So, with such a large field we are proud to have helped three winners out of seven finalists this year versus one winner from five finalists in 2004. MAME awards were again given to the best marketed homes and continuing our tradition of ever improving services Mert Carpenter Photography helped garner 12 winners out of 34 finalists. "How to find and work with a photographer” was the title of Mert’s talk at HBA's (Home Builders Association) seminar on “How to prepare a MAME entry". Mert traveled the great Amertican Northwest to photograph new architecturally interesting low income housing for the ESIC Corporation of Columbia, MD. ESIC specializes in designing, funding, and promoting creative housing solutions for those with low incomes. These apartment buildings were in Eugene, OR; Vancouver and Seattle, WA; and Salt Lake City, UT. The MAME (Marketing And Merchandising Excellence) Organization of Northern California gave out their awards for the best designed and marketed home communities in various categories. Our photography was instrumental in 30 finalists of which 7 were winners. The BALA (Best in American Living), a national design competition hosted by NAHB and Professional Builder Magazine gave two top awards to SummerHill Homes and KTGY Architects based on Mert’s photography. A Gold Award went to Ravenna for Best Single Family Detached Home under 1500 sq.ft. while Bella Monte won a Silver Award for Community of the Year: Best Neighborhood up to 150 units.