Building The Future By Caroline Monday The Watauga High School construction technology department has been putting the practical skills they teach their students to use since the 1960s. The fruit of their labor is the House Project located at Buckeye Estates. The WHS Construction Technology House Project completed their latest house last week. Photo by Caroline Monday Daniel Cook and Caleb Trivette finish molding in the master bathroom. Photo by Caroline Monday About every three years the classes complete a house in this neighborhood, and their latest effort is complete and ready for sale. The house is a three bedroom, two bedroom house, with an unfinished basement. The house is appraised at $200,000 or more. WHS construction technology teacher Ronnie Storie said that over the past three years the students have been involved in every step of turning this once blank piece of property into a comfortable place to live. They have done everything from clearing and grading the lot to laying the brick and tile. The only thing the students did not do themselves was the plumbing and some of the electrical work. Storie explained that the teachers show students the basic techniques used to build a house in classes at the high school. The students then are allowed to come to the site of the house and put those skills to practical use. “Over all they’ve done a real good job,” Storie said. Many of the students who work on the houses have parents and other relatives who work in construction. Storie said some of his students have gone on to get their contractor’s license and start businesses of their own. Many of Storie’s students do not have to wait to graduate to begin working with a professional contractor. After taking two construction or electrical classes, they can go into a work program, if they are in good standing in other curriculum requirements. Daniel Cook is one of these students. His father is a general contractor and he said he was very familiar with construction before starting the class. He plans to work with his father as part of the work program during the next school year. He said he hopes to go into either construction or wielding professionally after he graduates. The school board bought the property Buckeye Estates stands on in the 1960s. They bought the land to accommodate a new school board building and designated the land not used by that building to be used for the high school’s agriculture and construction programs. Forty years later, a small neighborhood has been built, with room for three more houses. The school board voted to name the property the house stands on as surplus property at their February meeting. The property will be sold and the money procured from that sale put back into the House Project program. The school system will not be using the services of a real estate agent to sell the property and is accepting offers. When they receive a suitable offer, the school board must run an add in the newspaper, to allow for any higher bids. At the meeting, board attorney Paul Miller said this system is one they have used to sell houses produced by the House Project in the past and is one that works well.