Students at Sioux City’s Career Academy are once again building two homes, one to sell and one for Habitat for Humanity.
Principal Eric Kilburn says the home they will sell will be good for a family. “It’s 1,481 square feet, still three bedrooms up, two bathrooms up primary, and the opportunity to double that with a basement or foundation,” he says. It’s the second year they’ve built the homes and he says they have 26 juniors and 18 seniors who are providing the leadership from last year’s builds.
“They’ve gotten better at some of their work too. So they’re quicker at framing, they’re more precise with some of the stone work and fascia and some of the more complicated work, and they’re taking more interest in some of the finer details and also learning within the trades, which trade they want to do, what their passion is,” Kilburn says. “So might be framing, it might be roof work, it might be a drywall. It could be electrical, some plumbing. We’re doing more plumbing in HVAC this year with our seniors.”
Kilburn says they are letting potential buyers see the home and they can also suggest some changes if they are seriously interested in buying the home. “I want them to have a blank canvas. And right now it’s fairly blank. We don’t have a countertop sorted yet. A lot of the finish and fixtures can be adjusted at this point. So yes, we would love people to come on in and put their dream to it,” he says
Potential buyers need to have a lot for the home and need to submit a formal letter of interest to the Career Academy no later than May 9th.
(By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)