By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
Potential buyers will get an opportunity today to take a tour of a home built by North Central Kansas Technical College students that is up for auction later this year.
Twelve NCK Tech Carpentry and Cabinetmaking students have been working for the last year on the nearly 2,000-square-foot home that will be auctioned off on Saturday, May 23 at 10 a.m.
Doug Marrs, NCK Tech Carpentry instructor, said this is the third home students have built on the campus and since they began building the homes, the program has grown from three students to 12.
The students begin the first semester by designing the layout of the house. Marrs said he gives them a list of features that must be included in the house. They then chose the best designs and begin construction.
“It allows the students to take more ownership of the house because it’s their house, it’s not mine,” Marrs said.
He said when the students come into they do not know how to design a house so he helps them come up with the best layout.
Once the design process is complete, the students frame the house, from the foundation to the peak of the roof, according to Marrs.
By the end of the semester, they will have the floor joist down, built to interior and exterior walls and installed the windows and doors.
The second semester, they will finish the inside of the house, including all of the cabinet work, also built by the students.
It all it takes about eight months for Marrs and the students to build the house.
Marrs said the NCK Tech campuses in Hays and Beloit are the only schools where students get a chance to do hands-on work of this nature.
He said it allows students to “apply this knowledge that they are gaining and put it into a practical aspect and they turn it around and physically build (the house.)”
At the open house, people will get a chance to look at the layout and the quality of workmanship of the home.
The carpentry program is a one-year program with the option of returning for a second year to go through a additional training.
The open house is Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the NCK Tech campus, located at 2205 Wheatland Ave.