The trailer-sized barbecue was warming as Canadian Homebuilders Association Central Interior president Darryl Caunt stepped up to the microphone.
He called out name after name after name of the people involved in this project undertaken by the community for the community.
Behind him stood the fruit of all this communal labour. This year’s YM/YWCA Dream Home.
This year’s project is more than just a fundraiser for the non-profit agency. It’s a first for Kamloops, a demonstration of how a house can be built so that it produces its own electricity and heat.
From its solar roof panels to the geothermal heat generating up from the ground, this is the Green Dream Home.
It’s also one of the winning projects for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.’s national EQuilibrium sustainable demonstration houses. In the next six months, as many as 60,000 people are expected to walk through the house at 1858 Ironwood Terrace.
“There’s been no other home like it,” said Caunt, referring not only to the house’s environmental attributes, but also the fact the community is behind its construction, including involvement of Thompson Rivers University students in the construction as part of their training.
The Homebuilders’ association worked with TRU students for 19 years, and both have participated with creating the Y Dream Home for the last 15.
Lindsay Langill, TRu’s dean of the school of trades and technology, said it’s amazing what students and the community can do when they pull together.
“Certainly, we are setting new ground, setting new benchmarks,” he said.
Tk’emlups Indian Band Coun. Evelyn Camille reminded those present of the need to care for the earth and children’s future. She also hinted she was due for some good luck in the Y Dream Home lottery.
“Every year I buy a ticket. Maybe this year, they’ll pull mine.”
Brian Hyashi of NexBuild Construction, who had the main building crews on the site, later showed off some of the green features of the home.
They included automated lighting, powder-coated rebar railing rods, cork flooring, recycled glass kitchen countertops, bamboo cupboards, Energuide appliances, concrete and foam insulation exterior walls, triple-glazed balcony doors and a digital meter that shows how much solar electricity the house is creating and how much it’s using.
More information about the house is available online at www.greendreamhome.ca.
