The Remodelers Council of the Home Builders Association of Raleigh-Wake County held the 16th annual STAR Awards at the Renaissance Raleigh Hotel at North Hills on May 7. Nearly 40 projects representing the best remodeling work from attics to basements, inside and out, received awards. Two building companies — TrendMark Inc. and Complete Construction Co. — made the trip to the stage so often to collect their gold awards, you hoped they’d brought the truck to haul them home.

Best Exterior Facelift

Even after 15 years as president of TrendMark, Wallace Baker hasn’t seen everything. The challenges make his work fun, and this house overlooking MacGregor Downs Lake was the most interesting that he took on last year.

To create garage space for five cars and add outdoor living space, Baker tore down a carport and built a three-bay garage in its place, then wound a driveway down a steep hill behind the house, where he built a two-bay garage with a stone patio above it. He had to come up with a way of wicking the water away from the flat roof to keep the air-conditioned garage underneath dry.

“Working that out took a lot of detail,” Baker said. He used a system that provided waterproofing and a surface on which to lay travertine stone. “You don’t see that a lot on houses at all,” he said.

The gold award TrendMark Inc. earned for this exterior makeover was one of seven golds the builder took home that night, along with one silver award. “This year by far was a fantastic showing for us,” Baker said. Best Bathroom Over $50,000

If his clients can think it, Glenn White can do it. The president of Complete Construction Co. has been making customers’ dreams into reality since 1983. The award-winning bathroom started out as a standard white-tile room shaped like home plate. But the homeowner envisioned floating vanities, back-to-back mirrors that were invisible until you walked in front of them and a walk-behind shower that felt like bathing in a waterfall. White had the knowledge of products and construction techniques to make it work. He knew that direct-set windows without trim work would bring the outdoors in. He brought the cabinet contractor and tile contractor in at the start to brainstorm how to achieve the outcome the client wanted.

“We spent a lot of time listening to her,” White said. “She knew what she liked when she saw it, so we’d bring samples to her.” They spent time exploring colors. He found a metallic paint with fine gold sparkles in it that brought out the best in the tile and stone. White suggested combinations of products — balancing less expensive porcelain with more expensive natural stone, for instance — to fit her style and her budget.

“There are so many products and applications out there that people just don’t know about,” he said. Complete Construction Co.’s gold award for Best Bathroom Over $50,000 was one of seven golds the remodeler won and the 33rd the company has won in the past seven years. “That goes a long way for the company’s morale,” White said.

Best Historic Restoration and Best Outdoor Living

2SL Design Build won two golds for one project — a historic restoration the architectural and construction firm took on that transformed a 19th-century house inside and out. Architect John Sibert, one of the “S’s” in 2SL — his wife, Lina, and his brother Alan complete the equation — added a family room, closet suite and master bath to a bungalow in Oakwood built in 1825. The challenge came in replicating the stucco exterior, the vinyl siding of its time, Sibert said. He had to train a crew to do the work, as old-time plasterers are scarce.

The yard behind the house had been a dog run. Sibert built a two-car detached garage, terraced the yard to re-channel water away from the addition and added a water feature along the axis from the house to the garage.

The project was a win-win: The family loved their new indoor and outdoor living spaces, and the Historic District Commission approved.

Best Speculative Remodel

Which is more impressive: that Archwood Building Co.’s whole-house remodel was the only entry to receive a perfect score from the judges, or that the contractor nearly tripled the size of a 1,200-square-foot house without taking down a single tree? Either way, it’s easy to see why the formerly squat brick house near Five Points emerged a gold winner.

Archwood owner Michael Powell worked up a design with the couple who owned the 1930s house, but before construction could start, the couple, facing the immutable deadline of the birth of their child, found another house in the neighborhood that was move-in ready. They bought that house, and Powell bought the one they had intended to remodel.

Powell’s newly renovated house, now on the market, retains the character and scale that fits with the neighborhood. Inside, he raised the ceilings, added three bedrooms and two bathrooms in a half-story visible from the street. He expanded the main level to include a dining room with 5-foot-high wainscoting, a playroom with plenty of built-in bookshelves and a covered porch shaded by a giant oak tree. Powell remembers that tree from playing in the neighborhood as a kid – his uncle owned the house across the street. The builder’s roots in the community affect his work.

“Being a Raleigh native,” Powell said, “I have to do good work if I want to continue to live here.”

Nancy E. Oates is a business and real estate writer in Chapel Hill. Reach her at neoates@earthlink.net.