NORM MORRISON
For more than 20 years a North Vancouver company has been building a solid reputation for custom designing and constructing topquality, locally engineered pre-fabricated homes and cabins for buyers both in the Pacific Northwest and across the globe.
When Norman Morrison first launched AJIA Canadian Building Systems two decades ago, the bulk of his business involved shipping log-home packages to Japan, but the late-2000s global recession forced Morrison and his staff to refocus their energies on the domestic market instead. It turned out to be one of the best moves the company ever made.
Today, AJIA still occasionally exports its pre-fab homes overseas and across the country, but now is concerned primarily with the designing, shipping and on-site construction of its products in Western Canada and the United States.
"Getting involved in local markets has given us an opportunity to be more active in the whole construction process," says Morrison. "We're doing the designs, we're doing the engineering and now, we're doing all the site work as well. "
While most of the dwellings AJIA designs are constructed from natural cedar and Douglas fir timbers, the company also is able to customize material selection as easily as they tailor every home or cabin to the specific requests of each client. To date, the smallest home AJIA has constructed is a one-room, 400-squarefoot cabin. The largest is a massive, 9,000-square-foot edifice that was shipped to Colorado.
Morrison says the biggest advantage of buying a pre-fab home is that AJIA is able to provide their clients with a fixed cost, thereby relieving the most common homebuilder headache.
"We're telling our clients how much it's going to cost before they start. In most cases in home construction you don't get that assurance," says Morrison. "Another advantage to buying pre-fab is that we're much faster. We build a lot of it in our shop before we get to the site and therefore what happens on site happens a lot quicker."
WORDS OF WISDOM
If the job is worth doing, it's worth doing right.
GET TO KNOW ME
What is usually your first thought when you get up?
What is it going to be that excites me today?
What is the last CD you listened to?
Are they still making those things? Actually, my kids have got me onto the iPhone music now, but the last song I listened to would be a Jack Johnson one.
Do you have any pets?
I have a whole tribe of dogs. Each one is different, but they all get along well. They've established their order. There are one female and two males - you can guess which one's the boss.
What's your favourite place to take out-oftown guests?
Probably my cabin up Indian Arm. It's a boat-access-only place about 15 minutes away from the city and it's a whole different world.
FIND US AT
telephone 604-990-1133
email [email protected]
internet www.ajia.ca
