There aren't many classes around where students can drive by a house and point to their class project, or take friends and family on tours upstairs and downstairs of a graded school project.

But on June 12, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and other family and friends of Grundy Area Vocational Center Building Trades students led tours through a finished house that is now on the market. They built it from the ground up, excluding a few chores, such as pouring the basement and hanging drywall.

The open house was held at the residence in The Fields of Saratoga subdivision in Morris.
 
Dan Wissmiller just graduated from Morris Community High School and GAVC's program. He brought his mother to see the house before heading out to his job at Menards.

"I really like it," he said of how the house turned out. "I feel like I made something great. I had a lot of fun and got some good work experience."

Before working on the GAVC house, Wissmiller said, he had helped his father with some carpentry, but that was the extent of his experience working on houses. With this project, the students had a hand in just about everything, including framing, exterior finishwork, mechanical work, and dry-walling the basement.

They did hire out the pouring of the basement. A set of forms for that job would cost around $300,000, which would be cost prohibitive for them. Professionals also were hired for the outside brickwork, although students do assist with that, and for some of the dry wall work.

According to GAVC Building Trades instructor Bob Humbert, the students do the dry walling in the basement and the garage, but the skill takes quite a while to master, so they hire out for the dry walling in the main upstairs rooms of the house.

Morris Community High School senior Derek Cheshareck, who spent last year in the GAVC Building Trades program, brought his family to the open house.

"I love it," he said of building the house. "It's really fun. You get to learn a lot of new stuff. And the instructors were absolutely wonderful."

Cheshareck said he hasn't decided on a career goal yet. He said one of the more difficult parts of constructing the home was the drywall. The mudding and taping were pretty aggravating, he said.

"Some of our students start the year never having done any kind of construction," Humbert said at the open house. "So we start at the very beginning learning such basic skills as how to read a tape measure. They might watch a video, then read a book, then we come back here and frame the floors or walls. They get a lot of their basic knowledge in the classroom first, then they come out here and do the hands-on."

Humbert said the various skills the students learn in the course can help them with a building trades career or even if they don't go into the field. They will be more comfortable taking on home repairs after building a house with GAVC, he said.

Getting a good feel for all that goes into building a house will also make them better in their specialized construction field, he said. If, for example, one of the students becomes a carpenter, he will already know what the needs of the electricians will be and can plan his work to make the electrician's job easier for him.

"It helps the whole crew," he said.

Those who toured during the open house were impressed by the quality of the carpentry, the hardwood floors, the spacious bedrooms, and the downstairs family room complete with wet bar. There was even a bedroom and bathroom downstairs.

The program, long revered in the community, might have a more difficult time next year, however. The course's other instructor, Tiffan Misener, was laid off this year due to budget constraints. Both Humbert and Misener said that's not a good scenario to mix students, power tools, and only one instructor for the entire class.

It's a safety consideration, Misener said.

Ryan Eschenbam, a Morris Community High School senior, was named this year's Tradesman of the Year in GAVC's building trades classes. The award is based on students' overall performance, both in the classroom and at the site.

The prize awarded was $700 worth of power tools donated by Matteson Ace Hardware.