Paul Anderson graduated from St. Charles High School Sunday not only with diploma in hand but also with a mark of his work that may last for decades.
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Anderson designed the 14th annual house constructed by St. Charles High School building-trades students.
Juniors in the program were putting finishing touches on the two-story, four-bedroom home this week.
“Charleston XIV,” the house at 22 Daniels Drive in Batavia, will be offered for sale for $259,900 by the high school.
St. Charles is one of a few suburban high schools that buy lots and then give students hands-on experience in construction supervised by teachers.
Naperville Unit School District 203 students have completed their 17th new house, at 208 Oleson Drive in the suburb.
It is being offered for $339,600.
Any profit made by the programs is plowed back into buying lots and construction materials for the following year.
The groundwork for the new home was laid a year ahead when 18 St. Charles drafting students took to their computers to design houses in a class competition. Judges selected the winning entry, which last year was designed by Anderson.
The parameters were a two-story house with a maximum of 2,400 square feet, which later was increased to 2,700 square feet.
“I wanted a basic first-floor plan with the kitchen next to the family room and the kitchen next to the dining room,” Anderson said.
“Upstairs, I wanted a large master bedroom suite with a big walk-in closet and a big bathroom. The laundry room door can be shut and you wouldn’t know it’s there. It has a fold-down ironing board.”
Professionals excavated the lot and constructed the foundation. Plumbers and electricians were called in. But students did most of the other work.
Todd Westenbarger, a student crew chief, helped to build the wooden framing and roof trusses, installed doors and cabinets and painted walls. “My satisfaction was to get a group of people together and achieve a task,” he said.
Twenty-eight interior-design students had a separate competition to determine who would pick the colors and cabinets and lighting fixtures.
Laurie Canoles, the winner, selected traditional colors, including beige carpeting. Her green theme flows through with a green door, green shutters and small green diamonds on the white tile in the kitchen.
Canoles said her choices were made based on a profile she developed of the family who might buy the house–“a 30-year-old man with a lot of money, a wife and two small children.”