The Ottawa Citizen
April 28, 1998

Breaking down the myths

These R2000 homes save energy, improve indoor living and are built in a factory in Morewood, Ontario

By Sheila Brady
Citizen advertising features

Last month Ontario's number one builder of R2000 homes set a speed record for assembling an appealing three-bedroom home at the Spring Home Show and then another record for taking it apart.

Flatbed trucks roared into Lansdowne Park on March 21 and cranes and a crew of 12 from Guildcrest Homes worked around the clock for the next three days, linking the modules together. The finished shell was handed over to Ottawa designer Wendy Blom and Colonial Furniture on March 24 and one day later thousands were lining up to walk through the winning home.

Within moments of the Home Show closing on Sunday, crews were busy again. This time they were moving the Glengarry to its permanent home in Country Hill Estates, south of Ottawa near the small community of Morewood.

This time crews didn't work through the night and the Glengarry was set on a concrete foundation, linked up to a well and septic system and permanent wiring.

There is nothing temporary and everything impressive about this home which was built inside Guildcrest's Morewood factory. The Glengarry blasts away many of the myths surrounding modular built homes as boxy and unimaginative architecture.

"We wanted to confront and break a lot of myths and make people aware of what we are doing," says Guildcrest president David Poupore. The Glengarry packs a wallop of design power, offering nine-foot ceilings, loads of hardwood flooring, crown moulding, a Great Room tailored for family living and a main floor master bedroom delivering convenience and luxury.

Outside the two-storey home is a good looking blend of siding, brick, gables, a big porch and complementary roof lines. The good looks are more than skin deep. The Glengarry is an R2000 home, delivering low energy bills and top quality air quality.

The Glengarry is the newest offering from a company that has been quietly building affordable and large custom homes in its Morewood factory and then transporting the modules to private sites across the province.

Now Guildcrest is bringing their combination of smart modular building and R-2000 construction to four subdivisions in the region. The Glengarry is being rebuilt on a large, treed lot in Guildecrest's newest subdivision, Country Hill Estates.

There are 108 lots in Country Hill Estates and a new corporate drive to bring homes to people who don't own their own land but want the convenience and efficiency of a Guildcrest home. "About five per cent of people own their own lots and now we are tapping into a larger market," says Mr. Poupore.

Guildcrest has other rural subdivisions near Ottawa, including Rose Meadows near Metcalfe, Forest Wood Heights off Highway 31, Fox Fire Ridge near the Hamlet of Ormond and Lynn Valley near Vernon, Ontario, says Mr. Poupore, leader of the Guildcrest team which has built more than 350 R2000 homes in the past four years.

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