House built by students to be auctioned at Greenback Public School
Becca J. G. Godwin news-herald.net
When it came time to choose a color for the front door of a house built by Greenback Public School students, the teacher in charge consulted the internet.
After Googling “best color front door for a blue house,” three colors came up.
“Gray, and I wasn’t going to paint it gray because one, that’s my name, and … I think it would have been too dark,” said Gray Williams. “Red was the other one, and I wasn’t about to paint it red, because Loudon is red.”
Williams ended up going with a brighter yellow than mustard, and some people have given him a hard time for it. There were those who said to leave it white.
“I thought, ‘No, I think a yellow door framed in white will look good. And when the storm door is closed … it does,” Williams said. “I think it looks really good.”
On July 27 at 10 a.m., the student-built house with a yellow door will be up for a live auction at 400 Chilhowee St. in Greenback.
EK Auctioneers is volunteering its time and resources to help the students, and 100 percent of the proceeds will go to the school’s building trades.
IT’S ‘THEIR’ HOUSE
Building a house with students gave Williams new life as a teacher. It was something he’d never done before in his 32-year teaching career, the first dozen of which were spent with Lenoir City Schools.
“I was ready to get out. I was ready to retire,” said Williams, who has a degree in technology engineering education, is also a football teacher and used to be a licensed contractor. “And they approved this, and I thought, ‘Nah, I can hang in there.’”
The project came about through the Innovative School Models grant, which allowed teachers to propose things they wanted for their programs. Williams told then-principal Mike Casteel he’d like to build a house, and could model it after a program he’d visited at Cookeville High School.
Casteel approved it, and Williams said the idea was such a hit that Loudon High School is also building a house. When Williams asked Casteel where to put the foundation at Greenback, Casteel suggested the concrete pad on the old basketball court near the football field.
In past years, Williams’ Residential Construction class worked on small projects for the school, like constructing utility barns or facades, or taking on community projects. This time, five classes put in work on the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house beginning in September, and had it nearly complete before summer.
The school’s Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing Systems class, taught by Dan O’Neil, did the electrical work and the plumbing with the help of Massey Electric and John H Coleman. A retired local carpenter, Leroy Johnson, volunteered his time to help oversee things.
The students laid flooring, did the framing, shingled the roof and hung sheetrock. The only thing they subbed out was the sheetrock finishing; Williams could teach all year long and not teach somebody how to finish sheetrock.
The high school students did a great job with the craftsmanship and took a lot of pride in their work, Williams said. He built houses as a student himself in vocational school, and knows how great of an hands-on experience it is.
“The kids have built the house, and it is their house,” he said. “If they find out who bought it and where it’s sitting, when they drive down the road the rest of their life, they’ll be able to say, ‘I built that house when I was in high school.’”
Whoever does buy the home must put 20 percent down on the day of the auction, and the balance must be paid in full — and the house moved — by Aug. 13. Williams said he wants the house, which is 1456 square feet and “lives a lot bigger” than it looks like it would from the outside, to sell for as much as possible.
But his main concern is getting to do such a fun thing again.
“As long as we’ve got enough to build the next one, then we’ve done — I’ve done — my job,” he said.