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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend November 18, 2005 Dennis Davidson coordinates the raising of the final wall frame Thursday with the help of students in his construction class at South Medford High School. The house is across the street from the high school and belongs to a former student of the school. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Classroom walls South Medford students build upon their experience by constructing a house By BUFFY POLLOCK for the Mail Tribune Braving the bitter cold and dense fog that hovered over the Rogue Valley on Thursday, nine high school students banged hammers, trimmed wood beams and sized-up a final exterior wall for a home on Barnett Road, just outside South Medford High School. They were men of few words. "Cold." muttered one teen. "My fingers are freezing! Aren’t yours?" shivered another. "Naw, can’t feel ’em," came the answer. Advertisement Otherwise, all were focused on the work at hand. Finally, South High math teacher Lu Fransen commanded, "On three!" In seconds the final exterior wall to the home was vertical and the men of few words were all smiles. After months and months of building dog houses, storage sheds and miniature versions of real houses, teacher Dennis Davidson’s three dozen construction students were invited onto the work site to witness construction of an actual home "from the ground up." South High graduate Jon Andrews, whose family has owned the property for three generations, demolished the half-century-old structure in recent months and began the slow process to rebuild with help from his son and daughter. Davidson approached Andrews with the idea to let the students pitch in. "I noticed there was some work going on there so I stopped and talked to Jon about having the kids come over," Davidson said. "It’s to give the kids more of a hands-on experience rather than a classroom experience. They work with models but it’s not the same as being on a real job site." Andrews said he not only welcomed the extra pairs of hands, but was also eager for the students to gain "real-life experience." With Andrews’ dad, Gary Morrison, a part-time teacher at South willing to supervise students, the project was a go. Once a 1,062-square-foot two-bedroom structure built in 1949, the single dad first rented, then purchased the house from his grandparents beginning some 11 years ago. His grandparents raised a family there and Andrews even spent part of his own childhood there. Needing more living space — and separate rooms for his son and daughter — Andrews had contemplated in recent years adding a second story to the home, assembling a "pre-fab" unit or leaving it as-is. Finally, he reasoned, the house had served its time. "I talked to gramma about it and she said, ‘There’s a time when things have served their purpose.’ She said it was time, but it was kind of sad to see it finally go," Andrews said. It’s replacement, offering space both Andrews, son Brandon and daughter Samantha eagerly await, will be a 1,700-square-foot, three-bedroom home with a front porch. South High junior Matt Durant said it was "pretty cool" to build something "people are actually gonna live in." "I think it’s cool they’re letting high school students build a house," he noted. Sophomore Bryce Abernethy, a first-year construction student, said he enjoyed getting to try his newfound skills on a genuine construction site. "In class we were building some models with tiny pieces of wood. It’s easier out here on a real house — and more fun," he said. "I’m thinking about doing construction and this just gives us more experience." "It’s pretty cool seeing we get to make a house outta nothing," added senior Levi Bellgraph. "I’m pretty much thinking about going into construction. ... I think my favorite part is framing ... the actual walls." The actual walls, Andrews said Thursday were a sign the project was well under way after a month-long delay due over foundation work and plumbing, which Andrews hired contractors to complete. An avid camper, Andrews has staked out in a travel trailer in his driveway for the project. Though he was aiming to finish before Christmas, he said the home should be done by early February thanks to help from his former alma mater. Andrews said students who had been helping with the house had showed up outside of school to "ask what they can do" and had brought parents by to see what they’d helped accomplish. South High students will likely help with additional framing, roof sheeting and siding. A former wood shop student himself, Andrews said he could relate to the kids wanting to build something bigger than storage sheds and dog houses. "I’m sure they think it’s pretty cool," Andrews said. "I asked Dennis, ‘Hey man, how many dog houses can you build in a week? He said, ‘We put out a lot of dog houses!’ " Andrews added, "I think this is great hands-on experience for these kids ... that was the main reason I said OK to them helping ... and they seem to be having fun." Buffy Pollock is a free-lance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at [email protected]. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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