Later this month, the Ontario Home Builders’ Association will award its 2007 awards of distinction and builders Mattamy Homes and Country Green Homes have been nominated for their work in the Muskoka area.

Finalists were chosen in August from 515 entries to compete in 29 categories, the most in the awards’ history.

Mattamy has been nominated in the categories of most outstanding production home (two-storey up to 2,500 square feet) and best interior decorating (model home/suite, 2,000 square feet and over) for the White Pines subdivision located off Manitoba Street near the recently completed Bracebridge Sportsplex.

Country Green Homes is nominated in the most outstanding custom home (under 2,500 square feet) for a cottage on Muskoka Bay.

“It’s really quite spectacular,” said Country Green vice-president Adam Nesbitt from their home office in Milton.

Nesbitt said Country Green is typically focused on planned communities in the Greater Toronto Area, but occasionally they are approached to work on individual projects.

Although nominated in the custom cottage category, Nesbitt said the high-end, four-bedroom log home is more like a summer home than a cottage.

The timber for the building comes from the Haliburton area, he said, and the structure was actually assembled off-site before being moved to the property on Lake Muskoka and reassembled.

Nesbitt said the yard is landscaped throughout, and a set of stairs leading down to the lakefront was created from rocks left over from the blasting process.

The cottage has 250 feet of frontage on Lake Muskoka, and a boathouse and dock provide water access.

“It’s a beautiful panoramic view up and down the lake,” said Nesbitt.

Inside the cottage, the floors have been finished in slate stone and hickory.

The awards will be handed out on Sept. 27 at Blue Mountain Resort in Collingwood.