involved converting 3,400 square feet of crawl space into a full basement with a nine-foot ceiling, which the company had never done before. They ultimately achieved it not by lifting the house, but instead going under the house and underpinning the foundation walls without disturbing the surrounding exterior patios, landscaping and walkways. In addition to that crawlspace conversion, the company also added a two-storey oak library to the north end of the home. That library was what they specifically won the Georgie for. Currently, Hanava Homes is working on an even more unique project – likely the most unique of Paul’s whole career. “Architecturally, it’s extremely interesting,” he says. “We’re incorporating a steel structure into a wood frame. There’s floor-to-ceiling glass for a large section on the main floor, so we’re concealing the upper and lower window frames – we’re not going to see them, and yet we still have to have access to them in case there’s ever damage. That’s a challenge.” Those windows also feature recessed automatic blinds. That’s an interesting feature. Also interesting are the roof trusses – every single truss is different. Plus, the home itself is a “very unique shape,” with one feature corner is at a 135-degree angle. “There are a lot of firsts for us,” Paul says. “A lot of our tradespeople have never been on a home like this. It has been a real challenge and I think it’s going to be a pretty spectacular home.” Moving forward, Paul’s goal is to continue building homes of that size and calibre. As they take on more challenging projects like that, they also want to keep getting better – they want to learn better ways of building energy-efficient homes, they want to form even longer-lasting relationships with customers, and they want to keep “making a small difference in this big world we live in,” Paul says. Getting better, Paul concludes, is more important than getting bigger: “We are comfortable with the size of our current company. We would just like to keep building custom homes that challenge our creativity.” APRIL 2024
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