Tiny House Built By St. Paul Students To Be Auctioned Off
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- You can't learn carpentry if all you ever build are bird houses.
So, to think big, St. Paul Central High School's construction program turned to tiny houses.
"I think it's incredible that high school students built a project that's so appealing to so many people," said Anna Morawiecki, who coordinates Career and Technical Education for St. Paul Public Schools.
She says about 50 students worked on construction of a tiny house as part of their capstone project.
The house built on a tandem-axel trailer measures 20 by 8-and-a-half feet and weighs around 9,500 pounds.
Students constructed all aspects of the house, doing everything from framing and wiring to the plumbing and finish work.
"The television set is here, it doubles as a window shade," Morawiecki said. "We have a projector you can hook into."
Clearly, the house is designed in a way that every square inch of the space is put to use.
The kitchen counter and cupboards reveal a pull-out cooktop as well as a combination toaster oven and air fryer.
The bathroom includes a shower stall as well as a toilet with the sink built atop the tank.
The upper loft bedroom has space for a queen-sized mattress, accessible via a sliding ladder. The dining table is built with hinges to fold down and out of the way.
Morawiecki says students came up with the idea for the home to have built-in USB charging stations.
While there's a growing shortage of skilled tradespeople, it's work like this that can lite the fuse on construction careers.
"They realize why math is important and angles, and say this is why I come to school because I get to work with my hands and this is all applicable," Morawiecki said.
The reserve price on the tiny house is a minimum bid of $30,000 to cover what the school has into the materials and furnishings.
Money raised from the auction that remains open until Aug. 17 will help pay for future large-scale construction projects for St. Paul Central students.
For more information on tiny house bidding, click here.