EVERETT – All Howard Tate wanted was to match his rec-room window with the others in his house. Instead, he has all new windows – and a lot more.
Longtime Everett residents Howard and Pat Tate already had spent a long day at the Seattle Home Show in February when he stopped to ask a Milgard Windows representative how to find the match.
The Tates had visited the home show annually for decades, and Howard Tate had learned long before not to put his name on anything, lest he receive a barrage of phone calls.
But it took a while to determine that Milgard no longer made the window Howard Tate needed. His wife was bored.
“I don’t know why she did it – maybe to play a little joke on me,” Howard Tate said, “but my wife put my name on a contest entry form.”
And he won: $53,000 worth of home improvements and vacation options.
His entry was drawn as the grand prize winner of the 2004 Ultimate Fix-Up Sweepstakes, organized by broadcaster Entercom Seattle and sponsored by 10 home improvement and vacation companies. Eight months later, the nearly 30-year-old Tate home in south Everett shines with new products and labor, and there are still rewards left to reap.
“I’ve always had a lot of pride in my yard and house, and I thought it looked pretty good before, but now you drive up and it looks like a beacon,” Howard Tate said, adding that all his neighbors have commented on it.
After recovering from initial disbelief, the Tates set out to spend the winnings. Pat Tate is retired from the Boeing Co. and Howard Tate, who works part time for the state Liquor Control Board, considers himself mostly retired. So they had some time to devote to home improvement.
The prize package included a wide array of products and services. Leslie Savage, Entercom Seattle’s business development director, said the contest was designed to highlight the local home improvement industry.
“Not only does one winner win an amazing remodel package, but we are able to provide our listeners with information from our sponsors,” Savage said. “It allows our sponsors to showcase their product or service.”
Fulfilling its $12,000 contest sponsorship, James Hardie Building Products replaced the home’s original wood siding with fiber cement siding painted a pastel green.
“The James Hardie siding and paint was the biggest prize monetarily and brought the most dramatic change of all,” Howard Tate said.
He added that he initially was more reluctant about replacing the old siding – it was made without knots or flaws – than making any of the other improvements he won. (A friend saw to it that the old siding was put to good use.)
State Roofing installed a new earth-tone roof worth $2,500 this summer that nicely complements the siding, unlike the “orangey” roof that formerly topped the house, Howard Tate said. The $10,000 worth of new white Milgard windows and doors add to the look.
Combined with the windows, a gas fireplace insert installed by Fireside Hearth &Home valued at $2,600, has made a noticeable difference, Howard Tate said.
“The gas is just so much more efficient compared to our old wood-burning fireplace,” he said. “Ninety-seven percent of the heat it produces stays inside the house. So far, it’s much warmer, and it’s better for the environment.”
The couple also enhanced their home’s indoor spaces with $2,000 worth of interior West Coast doors from the Door Depot and a new bar for their rec room, worth $3,000, from AAA Pool Table and Games.
“I think it’s kind of funny that we basically didn’t win anything else for the rec room, which is what started all of this,” Howard Tate said, quickly adding that he’s grateful for everything else.
He was still busily overseeing measurement of the house’s counter tops last week, which will be replaced with about $7,000 worth of products from Signature Cabinets’ New Face Kitchen System. The couple has yet to use a $2,500 prize from Woodinville’s Westcon Construction Products.
When all the construction is complete, the Tates still have two vacations to look forward to: a trip for two to Maui from Trendwest Resorts, and 30-day stay at the luxury Harbor Steps Apartments in Seattle. The prize package also included $2,500 toward a home loan from Countrywide Home Loans, but because the Tate home is paid for, the couple accepted $500 cash instead.
“The sponsors all were very gracious and, for the most part, very flexible,” Howard Tate said. “Winning something worth that much money alone was terribly exciting, especially with such a diverse group of vendors doing so much, and it’s fun for me, as a semiretired guy, to be the contractor.”
Kristin Fetters-Walp is a Lake Stevens freelance writer.
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