Q&A with Courtenay Chudy at Warman Homes

Courtenay Chudy began her career with Warman Homes 16 years ago, starting as an architectural draftsperson, before making her way into sales. In 2016, she became the sales manager. The company has built three homes at Sarilia (two custom RTMs, and one custom site build), so we recently chatted with Courtenay to ask her about Warman Homes, their home-building process, building costs, and what makes building at Sarilia a little bit different from building in other communities. 

Can you tell me a little bit about what Warman Homes does?
We build site homes and RTM (ready-to-move) homes. Our site homes are stick-built on land and that could be in Warman, Martensville, Langham (which includes Sarilia), Dalmeny and Saskatoon.

Our RTM homes are built on our site here in Warman and then moved on to our customer’s foundation. We can move them anywhere in Saskatchewan, most places in Alberta and some locations in Manitoba. 

Based on your customers who’ve moved to Sarilia, what would you say are the main demographics in the area?
I’ve been to Sarilia many times and I think it’s so beautiful when I drive down there, so I don’t necessarily think it depends on your age. I think if you wanted to live somewhere with wide-open spaces and you wanted to have that beautiful river valley view, Sarilia would be the place you would want to be. You’re close enough to Saskatoon that you can still use all the amenities there, plus you have this beautiful landscape that you’re surrounded by when you go home.

How did building the custom stick-built home at Sarilia differ from building such a home in Warman or Saskatoon?
Once we had the plans finalized, we sent them to Sarilia’s engineer to get the raft foundation stamped and sealed. Then we were ready to start building. We don’t typically build raft foundations with projects in other areas—we just build a regular concrete foundation. Because Sarilia doesn’t have water plumbed in, the customers had to install a water tank in their basement, and a septic system, so that was something we had to take into account for them. These clients also asked for a grey-water system. Other than that, the entire house was exactly the same as what we would normally build. 

What is a raft foundation and why is it necessary at Sarilia?
Raft foundations are a floating foundation. It’s exactly as it sounds—it’s a raft. They are typically used in areas where the soil is poor or variable—where the ground might be prone to more movement. So, if the ground is moving and you’re building a house on top of it, the house has to be able to move with the ground. As the foundation moves, the house moves with it. Obviously, building down in a river valley, it’s going to be prone to ground shift. Knowing all those variables, it makes perfect sense that they are enforcing a foundation specifically designed for that. 

There’s a plan for The Kodiak RTM in the Sarilia Buyer’s Guide. If a customer wanted to build the Kodiak at Sarilia, what part of the process would Warman Homes handle, and what is the customer responsible for?
If we are building the Kodiak specifically, it would be the main floor and the second floor. We would be building that on our yard in Warman—everything from the main floor joists up. Then, we finish it here and deliver it to a foundation that’s already completed at Sarilia and roll the house on.

The customer typically takes care of the rest, so they would hook up their sewer, water (septic and cistern for Sarilia), their mechanical system, their electrical, things like that—they have to hook up their utilities on-site. We typically don’t supply the furnace or the hot-water heater on an RTM. Things like that typically get done after.

So, the customer would hire another company to pour the foundation?
Yes. But if we are building on site for them instead of an RTM, we take care of all that. We put in the foundation and then we stick build on top. We complete everything as a turn-key project.

What has it been like to build within Sarilia’s design standards?
As a home builder, we are always working with developer’s design standards no matter where we build. If we build in Rosewood in Saskatoon, we are working under Boychuk’s design standards. If we’re building in Warman—in Legends, Traditions or Southlands (subdivisions)—we’re working under KH Development’s design standards. Anywhere you build these days, unless it’s your own farmland, you have a design standard that you have to follow. So, to have to follow design standards is not new for us. But every developer has different standards. 

The way I interpret Sarilia’s guidelines is they are concerned with how the house will look at the end, and the property as a whole—the out buildings, drainage and grading, etc. They also want you to think about how much you’re changing the natural property. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It takes more time…but we all kind of need to do our part to take care of mother nature. 

What would it cost to build a Warman Home at Sarilia?
We often have customers that come here and we have a base price that we tell them—kind of like our starting point. We like to look at their plan and what kind of finishes they want before we can give them a number. 

There are a lot of variables so this is a hard question to answer but typically our RTM homes start around $105/square foot and our site homes start somewhere around $150-$160/square foot. Typically, we do a plan, review and discuss options you’re looking for before we decide on a base price. The price also depends on if we are building on land that we own, or if we are building on land that you own.