Home Of Your Daydreams The Winner Of Nic’s Raffle Will Get New Home For $100
A dozen carpentry students and a few subcontractors spent seven months carefully building a $200,000 house that has thousands of people daydreaming.
Tonight, an accountant will draw one of 4,000 raffle tickets in a brief ceremony at North Idaho College to determine the owner of the house.
“It’s the kind of house anyone would be proud to own,” said Bill Semmler, as he looked out over the veranda.
He stopped by the house in the Loch Haven Hills subdivision Thursday to see what his $100 raffle ticket might buy him.
The winner will get a 2,300-square-foot home, and the responsibility for more than $2,000 in annual property taxes.
The master bedroom features a full bath with a Jacuzzi, a walk-in closet and glass doors that open onto the veranda. The guest bedroom has a walk-in closet, too.
A gas fireplace, extensive built-in oak cabinets, and a quarry-rock tile entry are some of the inviting details of the open-style home.
Semmler was one of the last of the dreamers to drift through the roomy four-bedroom home before today’s big drawing.
The raffle has been so successful, the NIC Foundation has decided to do it again next year. The raffle is in its second year, and both years the foundation sold out of tickets - grossing $400,000 per year.
As Walt Carlson, NIC’s carpentry instructor, installed a brass front-door latch, neighbor Sid Smith came to the door looking to buy a ticket.
He was four days too late.
“Oh well,” he said before taking his leave. “I’m still $100 bucks richer.”
Carlson has let a few people in to look at the house as he’s put the finishing touches on it the last few days.
“I have a soft spot for people who have bought a ticket,” he said. Carlson, Steve Schenk, dean of college relations, and NIC President Bob Bennett do not purchase tickets in the raffle.
“How would it look if I won?” Schenk asked.
Prior to the raffle, the NIC Foundation used to sell the student-built home on the open market. But with the raffle, the foundation raises more money, and makes more people happy.
In addition to the house, the foundation will give away a car or boat, a $2,000 shopping spree and a vacation package. Last year, winners bought cars, appliances and paid off debts.
Pat Reagan, a real estate broker who won last year’s house, now has his lucky home up for sale.
With last year’s proceeds, the foundation paid for the construction of this year’s house, added $100,000 to its endowment fund, and doled out $50,000 to faculty members for a variety of equipment needs and educational projects.
The drawing is at 7 p.m. today at the Lakeside Theater stage just behind the college gymnasium.
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