By: Vannie Yu <[email protected]>

Pouring in the foundation, framing the walls and running the wires—these are basic essentials in the construction of any home. These are also building aspects that people commonly associate with professionals, not high school students. But for junior Michael Gastineau, he and his fellow Vocational Building Trades classmates do just that, and more.

Each year, the Vocational Building Trades classes participate in the construction of an actual house. They complete and sell the house around late spring. This year’s home design, chosen by architecture instructor David Smith and the Vocational Board of Directors, but personally designed by Gastineau, will become a reality in local Westfield. Located on 156th St. and Gray Road, the 2,600 square-foot home saw its initiation on Aug. 22 when students traveled to the neighborhood Bridgewater Commons for their first day on the job site.

“One thing is that we have started the framing of the house already,” Gastineau said. “In past years it’s taken a month or two months before starting on the walls so we’ve really jump-started this year. Subcontractors did part of the foundation during the summer and a bit at the start of the school year. We’re going to spend extra time at the end of next semester to do detailed work.”

Last year, the Vocational Board of Directors changed its mind on which house it originally wanted the classes to work on. Due to this sudden adjustment, students had to change to a much smaller home at the last minute.

Smith said, “We ended up getting started much later. When it came to the end, there was a mad dash to get it ready for the open house, so it might not have been as complete. It got finished and sold and everything’s fine, so there weren’t necessarily problems. It’s just, you know, if you get a late start you’re going to have a late finish. But we’ve got a good start this year.”

Despite the jump-start, construction rate on the house remains the same. Gastineau said that the building classes move at a slow rate that also allows for potential buyers to ask if they can rearrange certain parts of the original style. “We go slow enough so that we can tell buyers, ‘We’ll give you a bigger master closet’ if they need one,” he said.

According to John Coghlan, Vocational Building Trades instructor, students on either Blue Day or Gold Day spend a duration of five hours each day working on the house.

“We actually do 99.9 percent of the electrical work, but while we’re doing rough-ins and running the wires inside the walls, we have a subcontractor doing the plumbing rough-ins and the heating and cooling rough-ins,” Coghlan said.

“Basically, we’re acting as one of the subcontractors that are also working in the house. Just from a time standpoint, we don’t have enough time to build a 2,600 square-foot house and do every single thing,” Coghlan said. “It would be tough to fit in especially with school day schedules. A developer, the person who owns the land, doesn’t want somebody taking two years to build a house.”

With the amount of work put in, Gastineau said that Vocational Building Trades was far from being a blow-off class. “It’s certainly something you really have to work for. If you sit in a math class, not working only affects yourself negatively in the end,” he said. “If you do that in this class, you affect everyone.

“That’s the unique thing about it. People who take it are really devoted. They want to see how things go, want to get experience, want to use it later on in life because the skills you gain here can be used for almost anything.”