It’s not a secret that many people from across the country, and all over the world, covet a piece of Summit County. Year after year, many second-home owners decide to invest in the community by building beautiful homes — and they rely on many local contractors to make it happen.

To celebrate the work of these contractors, the Summit County Builders Association is currently hosting its 26th annual Parade of Homes. The signature event simultaneously raises money for the association and The Summit Foundation, while recognizing some of the best work produced by homebuilders. This year’s event takes place over the course of two weekends: Sept. 18 and 19 and again on Sept. 25 and 26.

Participants submitted entries, along with a fee, to the Summit County Builders Association. The association then recruited judges from outside the county to assess each project, and winners were announced at a ceremony on Thursday, Sept. 16. People are encouraged to purchase a $20 ticket to tour each of the homes and ask questions about its design and inspiration over the following two weekends.

This year’s Mountain Living Peak Award winner was built by The Pinnacle Companies at 361 Peerless Drive in Breckenridge. According to the event program, the seven-bedroom, eight-bathroom home is over 6,500 square feet and has special touches such as a custom gas or wood-burning steel pizza oven and antique, gray barnwood from western Kentucky.

The rest of the winners were divided up into three categories where the projects were split based on square footage. Each category had two entries and each of the entries won at least one award within that category.

Projects 4,500 to 5,500 square feet:

• 337 Angler Mountain Ranch Road in Silverthorne, built by Travis Construction Inc., won best kitchen.
• 44 Aerie Drive in Silverthorne, built by TCC Design Build, won best exterior design and elevation, best master bedroom suite, best interior finishes, best interior furnishings, best landscaping and outdoor living space and best overall home.

Projects 6,500 to 7,500 square feet:

• 150 Beavers Drive in Breckenridge, built by Iron Forest Building, won best exterior design and elevation, best master bedroom suite and best interior furnishings.
• 362 Peerless Drive in Breckenridge, built by The Pinnacle Companies, won best kitchen, best interior finishes, best landscaping and outdoor living space, and best overall home.

Projects 8,500 to 9,000 square feet:

• 81 Mayfly Drive in Silverthorne, built by Raptor Construction, won best exterior design and elevation.
• 12 Peak Eight Court in Breckenridge, built by The Pinnacle Companies, won best kitchen, best master bedroom suite, best interior finishes, best interior furnishings, best landscaping and outdoor living space, and best overall home.

Marilyn Hogan, executive officer for the Summit County Builders Association, said around 400 tickets have been sold for the event as of Saturday, Sept. 18. Hogan said usually the event donates all of its ticket sales from the Parade of Homes to The Summit Foundation, and in 2019 that amounted to about $45,000. It’s this kind of impact that chair of the event, Linda Miller, said makes it all worth it.

“It’s a way to raise funds for the builders association as well as the ticket sales support The Summit Foundation, which I feel is a really good resource for people here in the county for all the things they do,” Miller said.

Though a popular event in the community, Hogan noted that planning events like these is only one part of the association’s role in the community.

“Some of the things that we do is advocacy on the state and national level, as far as looking at legislation and anything that might be harmful to builders and different things happening as far as building codes,” Hogan said. “We try to stay on top of all of that. We also provide opportunities for networking for our members.”