Dist. 203’s final student-built home up for bid

The final fruits of the Naperville Unit District 203 building trades program will be sold to the highest bidder in less than a month.

Several dozen students from Naperville North and Central high schools have been remodeling the home at 212 Basswood Drive since October 2009. Completed earlier this summer, the program’s final home will likely be sold to the highest bidder when the bids are unsealed on Sept. 15. at district headquarters.

“It was a complete renovation of a house there on Basswood. They stripped it down to the studs to redo a lot of the work on the inside,” said Assistant Superintendent of Instruction Tim Wierenga.

“We like for the students to look at the entire process of construction so they were able to do everything from flooring to Sheetrock to plumbing.”

Several dozen students would work in daily two-hour shifts and be bused to and from the three-bedroom, two bath home south of downtown Naperville.

“They did a tremendous job,” Wierenga said. “The house is beautiful.”

The district is accepting sealed bids until 10 a.m. Sept. 15 and 5 percent earnest money is due by 10 a.m. Sept. 17.

“We now have a resolution before us to sell this house in the wonderful real estate market,” said Board President Mike Jaensch. “If we don’t receive (bids) we’ll go the more conventional method of hiring a realtor.”

The house is the last to be built through the Building Trades program. When classes resume this week, Building Trades students will be take programs through the Technical Center of DuPage in Addison. But Jaensch said its unlikely they’ll be building or remodeling homes.

Earlier this summer, Superintendnet Mark Mitrovich purchased the previous home at 216 S. Whispering Hills Drive for a bid of $550,000.