Building A Future Scc’s Carpentry And Cabinetry Program Earns Hand-On Training By Building A House

Something unusual is going on at 13617 E. 13th Court.

Scattered around the mud- and weed-skirted cul-de-sac one recent morning were enough battered pickups to transport a platoon.

Nearby, an army of eager young and middle-age men attacked a normally mundane construction task - installing vinyl siding - with the deliberateness of fresh recruits.

“Measure twice, cut once,” was the order of the day echoing in their heads, if not actually crossing their lips.

The result - after frequent consultations with instructor Dan Gates and a few “do-overs” - was a siding job any homeowner could be proud of.

Twenty second-year students from Spokane Community College’s carpentry and cabinetry program are methodically working their way - step by painstaking, sometimes-frustrating step - through the process of building a house.

When they’re done in June, the students will be ready to seek employment as carpenters who can frame, do finish work and build cabinets from scratch, and, as a bonus, also know something about insulation, drywalling, concrete work … and installing vinyl siding.

Meanwhile, the Community Colleges of Spokane Foundation will have a carefully crafted three-bedroom home it hopes to sell on the open market for enough to generate $40,000 in unrestricted scholarships and equipment grants. An open house is scheduled for May 18.

The SCC carpentry and cabinetry program has built one home a year for more than two decades. But before it was always for a particular client, usually someone associated with the college.

Last year, the foundation’s new executive director, Gail Stevenson, learned about North Idaho College’s practice of underwriting a student-built house, then raffling it off.

Her counterpart at NIC, Steve Schenk, said the annual raffle typically earns about $150,000 for student programs. North Idaho College and area merchants sell 4,000 tickets at $100 apiece, with the cost of the house subtracted from the receipts. This year’s house - an upscale 2,200-square-foot residence near Highland Golf Course in Post Falls - will be raffled July 2.

Washington state gambling laws forbid the raffling of items as valuable as a house, so the CCS Foundation board decided to pay for construction, and then sell the house at fair market value.

To increase their profit margin, board members solicited materials and in-kind donations from area building suppliers and contractors.

“The response has been excellent,” said board member Tim Welsh, president of Garco Construction. “This is an opportunity for those of us in the construction industry to give back to the community.”

Donations ranged from free excavation work and concrete at below cost to a high-end natural gas fireplace.

And Welsh likes the new direction the carpentry program has taken. “In the past,” he said, “a private individual reaped the benefits of the students’ labor. The foundation thought it was better if those benefits were shared by other students” in the form of scholarships and grants.

Past clients did save money, but they agreed to stretch an otherwise three- or four-month-long project over nine months so students could keep up with their other academic commitments. And if the house wasn’t finished when the spring term ended, the homeowners had to complete it themselves.

This year, though, carpentry instructor Gates and his students are committed to wrapping up work by June, and the house may go on the market as early as May.

With that in mind, Gates staked out the Spokane Valley lot for excavation last summer, and footings already were poured by the time students began classes in September.

First-year SCC architecture students designed the house, based on recommendations by Gates and Stevenson.

Heating, air-conditioning and ventilation students installed the high-efficiency gas furnace and ventilation ducts, which Gates said an inspector described as “some of the best ductwork he’d ever seen.”

Spokane Falls Community College students are helping choose paints and floor coverings, and landscaping students may become involved with the yard design.

But carpentry students deserve most of the credit. This year’s class includes one woman, one Russian and a pair of twins. Many are fresh out of high school, though several are recent military retirees or laid-off timber workers.

Soft-spoken Jeremy Ashmoore is a typical SCC carpentry student. “I enjoy working with wood,” the 20-year-old Freeman High School graduate and son of a carpenter said during a break from hanging siding. After graduation in June, Ashmoore hopes to get a job in construction or cabinet-making.

“This program is really good,” he said, “because you get a lot of hands-on training as well as book knowledge. We’re able to come out here and use the skills we learned in the classroom.”

And thanks to the wide range of students, “we learn to get along with other people - that’s part of the job.”

The hardest thing to get used to, Ashmoore said, is occasionally inhospitable weather. He shudders at the recollection of trying to install roof sheathing during last fall’s ice storm. “But that’s part of the job, too,” he observed stoically.

Instructor Gates is well-suited to his leadership role. Not only does he have a degree in psychology and 17 years experience as a general contractor, Gates also has an easy-going disposition that allows him to take the inevitable mistakes in stride.

“With so many students, it’s a challenge to keep track of everyone,” said Gates, himself a former SCC carpentry student. “I may walk around a corner and find someone doing something wrong. But we can afford to take things apart and do them over - that’s part of learning.”

Some jobs - roofing, for instance, and taping drywall - are contracted out to local professionals. “Taping is really an art in itself,” explained Gates. “Last year I let my students tape a garage for practice. But it looked so bad, we decided not to try that this year.”

In general, the quality of his students’ work is high. “Very seldom is there a situation where we cut corners. In that sense, this house is a step above the typical spec home,” said Gates.

For instance, homes built on speculation sometimes don’t have wood trim inside closets. “But with 20 students, I need to trim everything I can find, just to give them the experience,” Gates said.

When finished, the house will feature a vaulted ceiling, two outdoor decks and a framed-in basement. Stevenson expects the price tag to be about $130,000, although it could rise if high-end appliances and expensive ornamental plantings are donated late in the process.

Stevenson - no stranger to the pitfalls of home construction, having worked with contractors for two of her own homes, and acted as general contractor on a third - says this year’s carpentry-class project is going so well, she expects it to become a major part of the CCS Foundation’s annual fund-raising strategy.

“It’s a win-win opportunity for the colleges,” she said. “It gives students a project to work on, and ultimately their efforts come back to the college in the form of unrestricted scholarships.”

For more information about the home, contact the CCS Foundation at 533-8611. Information about NIC’s raffle is available at the school’s office of college relations and development at (208) 769-3316.

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