As seen in the Weston Forum Local Home Wins Homebuilders Award A Weston house has been judged best Speculative Home of 1998 in the $1-million category by the Connecticut Homebuilders Association. Four Square Builders Inc., a residential home building company based in Sandy Hook, was honored with the prestigious award on Nov. 11. The home was a custom-designed hip roof and gabled Colonial with 5,600 square feet of living space. It was situated on 2.2 acres of sloping wooded property, abutting very sensitive open space consisting of older trees and dense wetlands. Careful environmental engineering was required to situate the house as naturally as possible and meet Weston's strict requirements for development. "All the valuable months spent in the design phase certainly paid off", said Neal Berko, president of Four Square Builders. "We sold the house in the framing stage to a wonderful couple from California and we were selected for the second year in a row by our peers as an award-winning residential home building contractor. This makes all of the heartache synonymous with our trade worth the effort." The statewide HBA contest bestowed more than 25 awards to homebuilders in many different categories, ranging from homes under $500,000 to homes over 8,000 square feet and more than $2.5 million. When Four Square Builders won the award last year for the best Custom home at 3,000 square feet in Redding, they felt they had reached a level of recognition that would be very difficult to match. It was only after the Berkos received several inquiries on the million-dollar speculative home that they realized they might have another potential winner. The five judges that visited over 200 entries from all counties in the state had very specific requirements that needed to be met or exceeded. Four Square's winning home met all of the judge's strict contest requirements, as well as impressing the panel with very detailed custom exterior and interior trim workmanship. "Although the home was 5,600 square feet, we carefully placed seven very well designed bathrooms in strategic, user-friendly locations which would be functional and not excessive," Mr. Berko said. "We tried to create a unique floor plan that is functional for everyday living, as well as executive entertainment when necessary." Four Square Builders has built a number of speculative and custom homes in Newtown, Southbury, Redding, Wilton and Weston. The company can be reached at its Sandy Hook office (203) 270-8610. << back to News