Time to show off your reno
Renovate much? Online entries are rolling in for the 11th annual Renovation Inspiration Contest, which honors welldone renovations of houses and commercial buildings in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties. The entry deadline is midnight Jan. 29.
Go to http://biz.post-gazette.com/renovationcontest/ and fill out the online entry form. Then download up to 10 photos, including a few before pictures to show the transformation, and write a short essay about how you did it.
Judges from the Pittsburgh PostGazette and Design Center Pittsburgh select finalists and visit the sites to meet the renovators and find out more. Up to six winners and runners-up are chosen and featured in stories and photos on the cover of the PG Sunday Home & Garden and Real Estate section. They also receive free design consults with an architect or designer affiliated with Design Center Pittsburgh. But by far the best prize, according to past winners, are free pairs of tickets to nearly every city house tour in 2017. Take it from us: Seeing the handiwork of others who love old buildings as much as you do is almost as inspiring as doing it yourself.
The contest began 11 years ago with just two residential categories: projects costing $50,000 or less and ones costing more than $50,000. Small project winners were usually kitchen and bath updates or facade restorations while large project winners tended to be whole house renovations. Each home had to be at least 50 years old.
We soon realized we were missing out on some great projects, so we expanded the contest to include businesses and creative people whose houses were not quite 50 years old. We added a commercial category and one for younger houses, those at least 25 years old.
People tell us the hardest part of entering is the essay of 250 words or less. We understand that not everyone can write about renovation, but sometimes photos just don’t tell the whole story. In your essay, discuss how your renovation meets three criteria:
• Appropriateness: Construction, scale and materials should fit the building and neighborhood.
• Functionality: The space should be usable, not a museum. Extra credit for using environmentally friendly materials and techniques.
• Imagination: Creativity in solving typical old-building problems.
All that’s left for you now is to enter. In interviewing finalists, we often hear this comment: I almost didn’t enter because I didn’t think I had a chance to win. Well, many of them did win. If this sounds like you, it’s time to stop being modest and show off your renovation!