Over the next two years, dozens of Carroll County Career and Technology Center students will find their classroom at 411 Kate Wagner Road, just outside Westminster.
The address is the future site of a country-style Cape Cod home some 200 vocational-technical students will help build, said XTC project coordinator Gene Dolly. The house is to be completed in the spring of 1994.
Mr. Dolly, along with county and school officials, broke ground for the project Friday. The house will be the sixth that vocational-technical students have built since the mid-1970s.
"It's an excellent opportunity for kids to learn something," he said. "It's a real different situation from a classroom shop. It will be a real job in the community with lasting worth."
The house's setting on Kate Wagner Road will afford a future homeowner a panoramic view of the rolling countryside. The school-owned tract sits adjacent to the new Friendship Valley Elementary School on Gist Road. There are also plans for a middle school to be built in the area.
When it is completed, the two-story house will feature four bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, a full basement, living room, family room, dining room and kitchen. Other amenities include a two-car garage, full-length front porch and a heat pump with central air conditioning.
Mr. Dolly said he expects the house to carry a price tag of $150,000 or more. The project will involve the efforts of students from several vocational-technical programs, including drafting, masonry, carpentry, electrical, plumbing, air conditioning and horticulture.
The last house built by students sold last year for $141,000. The two-story, Victorian-style house on Green Street in Westminster featured many of the same amenities planned for this dwelling.
When it's finished, the new house will be turned over to the county, which will sell the structure to the highest bidder.