Bow Island’s Jasper Homes awarded best home, kitchen

By Anna Smith

Commentator/Courier

The voice of Canada’s National residential construction industry, the Canadian Home Builders Association (CHBA), has said that the Magnolia is certainly in full bloom as the home is awarded not one, but two nation-wide awards.

Hundreds of applicants from across the country submit their work for the year, said CEO and owner of the Hiebert Group, John Hiebert. The group includes Hiebert Cabinets, Jade Homes and Jasper Fine Homes.

“It is quite an amazing award for a builder in southern Alberta. There could be some other builders in the area that have won a national award like this from the Home Builders Association, but I’m not aware of them,” said Hiebert, who added that it was truly an honour to even become a finalist in one category, let alone three.

The home in question, the Jasper Fine Homes Magnolia, won the Best Production Home, and the Hiebert Cabinets kitchen won Best Kitchen, while also placing as a finalist for best ensuite within its category.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Heibert. “We have worked hard as a team. We have awesome staff that are wonderful designers, and we love architectural design. And we also love building. We’re passionate about building beautiful homes and beautiful kitchens.”

Heibert initially believed that out of the three awards, they stood the best chance of winning Best Ensuite, but is far from displeased to be taking home such an award out of competition from across not only the province, such as in Edmonton or Calgary, but the whole country.

Heibert originally came to the Bow Island area roughly 19 years ago to found his custom cabinet shop, something that he attributes part of this success to, as having a custom shop allows for him and his team to more effectively take the needs of their clients into account and truly offer possibilities that would be difficult to find elsewhere.

“When you approach the design of a kitchen, or a home, you need to look at the prospective client, and how they work, live and play,” said Heibert. “What space do they actually need? Where’s the view? What did these people do and how do they like to entertain? Some people want cozy spaces, but there are also people that feel cozy places are claustrophobic. Everyone in Alberta here seems to bring a different element.”

Heibert spoke about how he and his team work hard to create cohesive flow throughout a home, or a coherency to the layout and design that makes it easy to navigate, both as a homeowner and as a guest, to the point that the ideal home can be easily wandered with one’s eyes closed.

“There’s all kinds of elements that we do take into building award-winning homes. And it’s not just one thing or the other. When you get judges that are judging these homes, they’re looking at multiple facets and how those facets fit together. It’s not just one criteria,” said Heibert.

“The Magnolia for instance, is the only first home in Medicine Hat area I believe that has a drywall hood. So the hood itself is drywall. Well, instead of having just one element, the drywall hood, we turned around and made the fireplace an accent drywall feature,” said Heibert. “Those two elements were very subtle and no one’s going to say to themselves, ‘I see that the fireplaces are dry walled and there’s drywall elements. And your hood has drywall elements.’ But subliminally, it starts to feel like it comes together.”

Overall, the Jasper Fine Homes team is proud to represent Bow Island and Southeast Alberta, and is excited to see what other residential masterpieces are surely just around the corner for them.

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