News

Being the winner of a million-dollar Pacific National Exhibition prize home has its drawbacks.

For one thing, you might find yourself trekking from room to room inside a 3,000-square-foot house, gazing up at 25-foot cathedral ceilings. For another, you might not even want to live in the place where it is located.

"I do run from the bedroom to the laundry room," says Hilda Kosiorkiewicz, winner of last year's $1-million, Whistler-style home set on a half-acre in Sechelt.

"And [the ceiling is] so high I could put up a basketball hoop and then I could sit down on my chesterfield and throw it," says Ms. Kosiorkiewicz, who is nearly 70 and shares the prize home with husband Gunther, a former construction worker.

Ms. Kosiorkiewicz, who moved to Canada from Germany in 1954, bought lottery tickets for the PNE prize home almost every year since 1963, but it was a ticket purchased for her by one of her four grown children that landed her the coveted prize.

Displayed on the Pacific National Exhibition grounds during the annual fair, the prize home draws an average 100,000 viewers through its doors. Organizers believe the 74-year-old contest is the oldest of its kind in Canada, and possibly North America.

At the time of their win, the Kosiorkiewiczes already owned a mortgage-free home in Mission. They kept that home, renting it to their son.

"Everybody said I should live here [in the new house] for a little while," Ms. Kosiorkiewicz says. "Even my doctor told me to put my feet in the salt ocean water. He thinks it's good for my legs.

"Well, I have done that - I can go now."

Given that the couple is retired, does not drive and has family based two hours away, it's no wonder they might find a new home in an entirely different community something of an adjustment. They won the home last September, at the close of the PNE, but moved in only in April, after weather conditions delayed construction of the pre-assembled house.

Now that they're finally living the good life - complete with other prizes such as a hot tub, boat and three flat-screen televisions - Ms. Kosiorkiewicz says the plan is to move early next year. With that in mind, she tries not to use the oven; "I don't want to make too much dirt, you know. I try to keep everything nice and neat."

"I'm very homesick," adds Ms. Kosiorkiewicz, whose family lives in Abbotsford and Mission. "That's what I said at the beginning. And I'm still homesick."

Angela Hay, gaming manager for the PNE, says Ms. Kosiorkiewicz's mixed reactions to winning the show house are not uncommon.

"The biggest problem is, a lot of times is they don't think of it as their house for a while," Ms. Hay says. "It takes a lot of time for them to fit into that mentality that they can do whatever they want with it."

A winner could decide to sell the valuable house immediately (an attractive option given the price of real estate these days), but that would incur capital gains taxes. To avoid that, the winner must wait a year before selling and must use the home as his or her principal residence during that period.

But the intention of the contest is to create a home that will make people want to live in it wherever it is located, organizers say.

"I think the PNE home is so iconic that people do plan on living in it - and I would certainly say in recent years the concept of the Sunshine Coast actually enhances that," says Laura Ballance, PNE director of communications.

Since the contest began in 1934, houses have been won in Vancouver, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Tsawwassen, Maple Ridge and, more recently, the recreational Sunshine Coast, such as Sechelt and Gibsons.

"I think the PNE home is so iconic that people do plan on living in it - and I would certainly say in recent years the concept of the Sunshine Coast actually enhances that," says Laura Ballance, PNE director of communications.

The designs of the prize homes have reflected the trends of their times, such as the Preso-Matic keyless door lock in the 1969 home, and the sunken living rooms, solar panels and sunshine ceilings in the 1970s. By the '80s, the homes ballooned in size, and there was greater emphasis on energy savings. The houses are still big, but now emphasize West Coast style and trends such as the great room.

"The PNE prize home represents the Everyman's lottery," Ms. Ballance says. "You dream of it, but it's also a great tradition. Your grandparents bought tickets, your parents bought tickets, and now you buy tickets."

"Some of the first homes in [East] Vancouver were PNE prize homes," she adds.

In 1934, when mechanic Leonard Frewin paid 25 cents for his ticket and won the first PNE prize home, he set down roots for the next several decades. The Dundas Street house was valued at a then-princely $5,000, complete with furnishings from Eatons department store, including an electric stove - a big highlight. After his death, the home was sold.

Maxine Dalfo, 84, bought the home from its second owner about 40 years ago. "We got a good deal on it," says Ms. Dalfo, who also inherited pictures of the house as it originally stood - on stilts. It is located just a half-block from the PNE, and was moved by horses.

"People recognize it," she says. "We get somebody here every year taking pictures."

The PNE does not keep contact with prize-home winners and does not collect data about whether houses are kept or sold by winners. But Ms. Kosiorkiewicz has her own theory, based on the number of previous winners who have contacted her since she moved into her Sechelt house.

On the Sunshine Coast "there are some other homes from previous PNE winners," she says. "But I think people don't live here any more. They sold their places. I think most people sell them."

In 1990, Tim and Lesley Austin won the PNE prize home in Surrey but after having a child they moved out of the house and returned to the Langley neighbourhood where they had previously rented. "We loved the house but it was more of a showpiece," Mr. Austin told a newspaper a few years later. "It wasn't really a house to have kids in. It was all brass and glass and mirrors."

And what will Ms. Kosiorkiewicz do once she sells the prize home that is too big and too far from her family?

"I will go back to the old one [in Mission] and get that one fixed up and sell that one and then get something, probably in Abbotsford, that is smaller and will suit us a bit more," she says. "But not too small."

The 2008 dream home

This year's grand prize in the PNE lottery, pictured above, is a 3,300-square-foot throwback to tradition - a $1.6-million cottage-inspired house with a nine-foot wide front porch and Victorian turret.

Located on a lot in Gibsons, on the Sunshine Coast, the prize reflects the rising popularity of recreational properties and comes complete with a sauna, hot tub, giant flat-screen TV, hobby room, barbecue area, patio, windsurfer, wake boards, kayak, snowboards and mountain bikes.

The furnished home also boasts a gourmet kitchen and is eco-friendly, with energy-saving appliances, a recycling room and water-conservation technology. It is built to come apart in seven modules for moving from the PNE site to Gibsons.

The PNE opens Aug. 16 and runs to Sept. 1, but there are free previews of the prize home, on the fairgrounds, on Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets for the draw, which will be held Sept. 2, sell for five for $25 or 15 for $50.

Kerry Gold