FRANKFORT -- Building a house, it turns out, doesn't take all that long.
It was a surprise to Phillip Gillespie, who last year as a first-time building trades student assumed there was no way he and his classmates could start and finish a home by June.
"We started from a hole in the ground to pouring the walls," said Gillespie, 18, a senior at Benzie Central High School. "It does come together really fast."
The 26 students in Benzie County's building trades program, part of the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District, are near completion on a two-story home near the city of Frankfort.
An open house for friends and family, community members and interested buyers will be from 1 to 4 p.m. today.
The house, near the corner of Beech Street and Bellows Avenue, has three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a full, walkout basement. It has a rough asking price of $150,000.
Students, mostly from Benzie and Manistee counties, do most of the construction, except for electrical and mechanical work. They now are adding finishing details.
Many don't attend college, said Ronald Gray, the program's instructor. Often, the students' training helps them land construction jobs when they graduate.
Robbie Simon, 18, will start working this summer for a private contractor in Benzie County. He received two $500 scholarships to buy tools as part of the program.
One day, he wants to move to Alaska and start his own business. But for now, the Benzie Central senior is absorbing any construction skill he can get.
"At first, I thought we were getting in a little over our heads," Simon said, adding that the house was fully framed by the start of winter. "It's kind of cool seeing the house start from nothing."
The Benzie Housing Council, an Honor-based nonprofit that helps the county's lower-income families find affordable places to live, covered the costs of the program this year for the first time.
The agency purchased property and divided it into three lots, one of which holds the students' home. It borrowed money for expenses after losing state funding, executive Director Joanne Sanborn said.
Many homes for sale depreciated in value because of the recession. As a result, the home will be sold on the open market, she said. Staff prefer to subsidize homes for lower- to mid-income families.
And unless the agency receives additional funding, Sanborn said, the council won't be able to partner with the ISD in future years.
"We're like other homeowners in this situation right now," she said. "It's not priced to make money. It's priced at a break-even point."
Gillespie, now in his second year with the program, hopes to study construction at Ferris State University. The program nurtured an interest he didn't really know he had.
A self-described "hands-on learner," he said the house's location could be an asset.
"You're not right in town in Frankfort, but you're not so far out of town," he said. "I'm not really worried about us selling this house."
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