Candlelight Homes wins Parade of Homes Judges’ Award for the 3rd consecutive year
Three Years in a Row.
Some things happen once and you feel lucky. Some things happen twice and you start to believe. When something happens three times in a row, it stops being luck and starts being a standard.
Candlelight Homes has just won the Judges’ Award at the Utah Valley Parade of Homes for the third consecutive year. In 2024, it was The St. Moritz. In 2025, it was The Northstar. And in 2026, the Judges chose The Solitude.
Three years. Three homes. Three awards.
We are proud. We are grateful. And we want to take a moment to do this right.
First, a Word About the Competition
Winning means more when the competition is exceptional. And at the Utah Valley Parade of Homes, the competition is always exceptional.
This year, more than 30 of Utah’s best builders opened their doors and let thousands of families walk through their work. Builders like Toll Brothers, Ivory Homes, Lennar, Anderson Builders, Trevi Homes, Journey’s End, Beacon Homes, Luxe Builders, and dozens more showed up with some of the most beautiful homes we have ever seen in this state.
Every one of those builders poured their craft, their vision, and their pride into their entry. The Parade of Homes exists because Utah has an extraordinary homebuilding community, and competing alongside these builders every year pushes us to be better. This award does not belong to us alone. It belongs to an industry that takes beauty seriously.
To every builder who participated in the 2026 Utah Valley Parade of Homes: thank you. You make this event worth attending, and you make this award worth earning.
What the Judges’ Award Actually Means
The Utah Valley Parade of Homes Judges Award is not a popularity contest. It is not determined by ticket sales or online votes. It is selected by a panel of Judges who are professionals in the industry, who evaluate new construction homes on design, craftsmanship, livability, and innovation.
Winning once is an achievement. Winning three consecutive years means the judges have looked at Candlelight Homes’ work three years running and said, again and again, that this is the standard.
That is not something we take lightly. “We Build Beautiful” is more than just our tagline at Candlelight Homes, and we are proud that other industry professionals recognize it.
The Home That Won It in 2026: The Solitude
This year’s Judges Award winner is The Solitude, a 2,274 sq. ft. Craftsman rambler built at Firefly in Eagle Mountain, Utah, created by dtj Design with interiors by Chymia Design. If you have never walked through a home and immediately known it was designed for the way real families actually live, The Solitude will change that.
Built for the Main Floor: The Solitude is a rambler, which means everything you want and need is on the main floor. That is not a small detail. It is a philosophy. Your home should work for you at every stage of life. The Solitude is not only designed for the young family in the thick of raising kids, it’s designed equally well for the empty nesters who don’t want stairs. Plus, it is a home that grows with you rather than working against you. The main floor is a generous 2,274 sq. ft. and offers an optional 2,221 square foot basement with nine-foot ceilings. If your family needs room to grow, that room is there.
Light as a Design Element: The moment you step inside The Solitude, you understand what floor-to-ceiling windows actually mean. The great room and dining area are flooded with natural light from every angle. The soaring vaulted ceilings lift the eye and open the space in a way that photographs cannot fully capture. Light is not an afterthought here. It is a design decision made deliberately, room by room.
A Kitchen Built for Real Life: The kitchen in The Solitude is expansive. Quartz countertops, cabinets to the ceiling, hidden electrical outlets, and a large central island that invites everyone to pull up a stool. A spacious walk-in pantry that keeps things organized so the kitchen can look as polished as it feels. This is the kitchen where your kids do homework while you cook dinner, where Saturday mornings happen slowly, and where the counter never feels crowded.
A Primary Suite That Earns the Word Retreat: The primary suite in The Solitude is where the judges paid close attention. Interior designer Andrea Moesser of Chymia Design brought a level of finish to this space with custom millwork that makes it impossible to walk through without stopping. A spa-inspired wet room featuring dual shower heads and a freestanding soaker tub, a dual sink vanity, and a generous walk-in closet. This is not a room you pass through at the end of the day. It is a room you actually look forward to.
Indoor and Outdoor as One Space: Just beyond the dining room, an extended covered deck connects the inside of the home to the Utah outdoors. This is the space where summer evenings happen. Where dinner moves outside. Where the mountains you moved to Eagle Mountain to be near are not just visible through a window, but part of your daily life.
Three consecutive Judges’ Awards tells a story. Here is how it unfolded.
2024: The St. Moritz
The St. Moritz was the home that started the streak. A European Farmhouse design with over 4,100 square feet, the St. Moritz brought a level of sophistication to the Parade that the judges recognized immediately. An open-concept main floor connecting a u-shaped kitchen with a massive island to the living and dining areas. A main-level primary suite with a spa-like en suite bathroom. Three additional bedrooms upstairs. The St. Moritz set the bar and earned Candlelight Homes its first UVHBA Judges’ Award.
2025: The Northstar
The Northstar raised that bar. A modern farmhouse-inspired design with 3,725 square feet, the Northstar brought something different to the Parade: a home that could handle everything. Charming architecture with indoor and outdoor entertaining space built for Utah summers. A gourmet kitchen with a spacious pantry. A grand primary suite with two closets. An optional ADU with a private entrance, a light-filled sunroom, an expansive loft, and twelve-foot patio doors. The Northstar was the kind of home that made you want to move in the same day you toured it. The judges agreed.
2026: The Solitude
And now The Solitude. Where the St. Moritz proved sophistication and the Northstar proved versatility, The Solitude proves something different. It proves that a well-designed home does not need to be the biggest home on the block to be the best one. At 2,274 sq. ft., The Solitude is the most intentional of the three. Every square foot is earning its place. Every detail was considered. The judges saw it and recognized it for what it is: a home that gets it right.
Why This Matters Beyond the Award
What do three consecutive Judges Awards mean for the families who choose Candlelight Homes as their builder? It means the standard you see at the Parade of Homes is the standard in every home we build. The design and craftsmanship the judges evaluated is not a Parade-only effort. It is what our team and our trade partners bring to every home, every lot, every day at Candlelight Homes.
It means when you choose Candlelight Homes, you are choosing the builder that Utah’s most discerning judges have selected three years in a row as the best in the valley.
And it means the home you build with us, whatever the floor plan, carries that same commitment to beauty, livability, and craft.
See The Solitude Today
The Solitude is not just an award-winning design. It is a home available right now at Firefly in Eagle Mountain, one of Utah’s fastest-growing cities, located just 40 miles south of Salt Lake City and 30 miles north of Provo with stunning mountain views,
Firefly is a unique master-planned community built around a simple but powerful idea: getting kids off their devices and back into the real world. Firefly has 350+ acres of parks, trails, and open space, packed full of unique amenities like a skate park, a bike pump track, basketball courts, pickleball courts, downhill mountain bike trails, sports fields, and more. Firefly gives your kids the kind of childhood you wanted them to have, full of adventure, and away from screens.
And with a full-time Activities Director organizing weekly events for all ages, the community doesn’t just exist in the background. It lives and breathes life into the neighborhood, creating true connections among Firefly residents.
Five model homes are open now, including all three Parade of Homes winners from 2024, 2025, and 2026. Choose your lot and start building your dream home, or choose one of our move-in-ready Designer Select Homes if you’ve already made up your mind to call Firefly home today.
Three years in a row. Come see why.