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House rehabbed by IHS students will be for sale soon

By LISA BOWERS

Journal Staff Writer

ISHPEMING — It’s been almost four academic years since Ishpeming High School students began the complete renovation and restoration of a house at 308 Division St., but the final product has been worth the wait.

Students in Ishpeming High School’s Geometry in Construction, Drafting and Advanced Construction classes worked to design a complete rehabilitation of the structure, and did nearly all of the demolition and construction work themselves.

As he conducted an impromptu tour of the single-family home, IHS junior Gavin Argall explained what kind of work went into the three-bedroom, one-bath single-family home.

“We started off with stripping it all down, checking out all the structuring and then went from insulation to drywall and electrical and went to the flooring,” Argall said.

Students put in the drywall, duct work, bathtub, counters, sinks, closets and built the front porch of the structure from the ground up, just to name a few things, Argall said.

“We did all the windows, window sills and trim, siding. Inside and out, everything,” Argall said.

At its inception, the project was considered one of the first of its kind. While many of the Geometry in Construction courses across the country built new structures, there are very few, if any that took on the task of rehabilitating an existing building.

“When I came in here it was just started to get drywalled and put back together when it got all the demolition done to it,” Argall said. “We just worked our way up from there.”

Ron Grochowski, who teaches the Geometry in Construction and Advanced Construction courses at IHS, said the experience has been rewarding both for him as a teacher as well as the students.

“It’s a tremendous experience because they make mistakes, and we learn from our mistakes,” Grochowski said. “It’s hands-on, so if they cut a board wrong, they cut another board, or tile or whatever. It’s a tremendous learning experience — tremendous to see the kids do things right and work hard. Yeah, they did a nice job.”

Ishpeming Schools Superintendent Carrie Meyer said the most exciting thing for her was watching the students at work and their progress from day to day, year after year.

“They were really out here on task,” Meyer said. “They worked hard, and to finally see them scurrying over the last day to make sure the final details were done and smiles on their faces. (It) has been exciting to see them at the completion of the project.”

Once the finishing touches, such as some plumbing and exterior work, are completed, the house will go up for sale, with a portion of the proceeds going toward the next Geometry in Construction project.

The Hematites Building Better Neighborhoods project is a testament to Ishpeming and the surrounding communities.

The total financial contributions to the project were over $100,000, with the Marquette County Land Bank’s purchase of the home, maintenance and utilities, a $55,000 contribution from the Cliffs/Eagle Community Fund, $15,000 from the Michigan Land Bank and a $5,000 Lowe’s Toolbox for Education grant plus multiple businesses and contractors who, among other things, provided donations and reduced prices on materials needed for the project, Marquette County Treasurer Anne Giroux said in an email Friday.

“It’s definitely exciting,” Giroux said of the project. “It’s been a long time coming and it took longer than we thought originally. I want to say our original agreement that we signed with the school was two years, which turned into three and then four. You know what’s hard, too, is (that) the kids that worked on it this year weren’t here four years ago. It would be awesome if we could get the kids that were here four years ago to come back and see what it looks like now. It’s really neat, very exciting.”

Upon completion, the next step would be selling the house, Giroux said, but it is unclear what the selling price would be or how the proceeds will be split.

“We need to sit down and talk about how this is going to work,” she said.

Lisa Bowers can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 242. Her email address is lbowers@miningjournal.net.

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