Cynthia Kwon was feeling nervous on Saturday morning.
It was a couple hours before gates opened on the first day of the Pacific National Exhibition and Kwon, the fair’s manager for gambling, didn’t know how people were going to receive this year’s $1.4-million prize home.
It’s a familiar feeling for Kwon, who is among the PNE staff who help builders design prize homes each year.
“I love it, this is gorgeous. I love it,” Kwon recalled having thought when she first saw the assembled home in person. “And then you go: ‘Oh man, what if people don’t love it? Is my taste bad?’”
But appealing to everyone’s tastes is no simple task. As fair spokeswoman Laura Ballance noted, the fair’s target demographic is people aged two to 92, and those — or at least most of them — are the people buying draw tickets.
Kwon said designing a prize home is about making it appeal to a broad range of people while still coming out “on trend.”
“We read all the magazines, we go to all the home shows, we see what’s going on and what people want and people are talking about,” Kwon said. “The worst thing would be to have the prize home behind the times.”
This year, fair goers won’t need to get inside the front door to know this house is anything but outdated. And that’s not because the two storey, 3,200 square foot home sports a boxy, modern west coast exterior. It’s because entering the home when it’s locked takes nothing more than the touch of your fingerprint.
Like many of the latest phones, the front door has a biometric lock designed to respond only to authorized fingers.
To see why that’s a nice detail, imagine this — you’ve returned from day out with a couple boxes of wine in your arms (the home will be plunked onto a half-acre lakeview lot in Naramata, so of course you’ll have wine with you). Rather than put the boxes down to fish for keys, just extend a digit, then walk on in.
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Once inside, walk those boxes straight to the kitchen table. Right beside it is a glass encased wine rack with room for about 150 bottles. And while the prize home doesn’t show it right now, that rack will serve as a cooler, chilling your bottles to taste.
Of course, it’s not just about the fancy details. This home has good bones.
It boasts three bedrooms, bathrooms and walk-in closets (two of those closets are in the master bedroom), a wellness room complete with personal sauna, and a sports lounge, private bar and lake view hot tub.
The home is built by Freeport, a company based in Westbank. It’s the first time they’ve done one for the PNE, which has been giving away prize homes since 1934, Ballance said.
She explained the catalyst for the raffle, which has become one of the fair’s most popular attractions.
“It was the height of the depression and the fair … wanted to do something to reinvigorate the housing trade. So they came up with the idea of doing a raffle and it was completely unheard of at the time. It created quite an excitement.”
As continues to be customary, the 1934 house was assembled at the fair then moved to the prize lot. In 1934, that lot was just off Renfrew Street, not far from the fair. Getting the house there was an ordeal. It was jacked up, placed on rounded Douglas fir logs and pulled to the lot by Clydesdale horses, Ballance. said.
For years they couldn’t go very far with the homes, so “a lot of this neighbourhood was developed by being peppered in the 30s, 40s and 50s with PNE prize homes,” Ballance said.
This prize home will head east. And from the takes of those who toured the home Saturday afternoon, it should please its eventual owner very much.
“Look at that, it would be like a dream” and “awesome” were among the comments some had for aspects of the house.
The only negative feedback overheard came from a young teen and she directed her comment at the unfinished garage at the corner of the house. “It’s pretty small,” she said.
But to put that comment in context, the garage is about the size of a lot of Vancouver apartments.
Tickets for the home run five for $25 or 15 for $50.
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The 2016 prize home at the PNE
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Living room of the 2016 PNE prize home.
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Master bedroom of the 2016 PNE prize home.
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Family room and part of the kitchen of the PNE prize home.
Clik here to view.
