ST. GEORGE, Utah — The annual Parade of Homes that starts this weekend in St. George features one home built with much younger hands.
"My dad, he inspired me. He's been doing construction all his life," said Beto Terraza, a junior at Career Tech High School in St. George.
Beto is part of a team of high school students from throughout Washington County who have helped build the home. It is one of the new and remodeled homes people can go through over the next week as part of the 34th St. George Parade of Homes.
"Parade of Homes is a big deal. Last year we had over 41,000 people come through and we expect that for this year," exolained Mari Krashowetz, the executive director of the Southern Utah Home Builders Association.
It's the eighth year a group of high school students have built a home as part of the parade. Students are already hard at work on a house for next year's event. Across the street, the two-story townhome on the southern edge of town is the latest to pop up in a growing community.
"Well, I've been in St. George for most of my life, but it's been insane to see how many homes pop up so fast all over," said Tristan Benedict, a senior at Crimson Cliffs High in Washington City.
The housing growth has not come with affordability. The high school construction program was started with the idea of building affordable homes for teachers. But organizers admit the $400,000 price tag of this student-built house may not be affordable for those on a teacher's salary.
"It's absolutely a concern," Krashowetz said. "We're concerned with our children and our grandchildren being able to afford a home in Washington County,"
But the teens who built the home said they overcame what felt like a daunting challenge for them.
"I walked in and was like, there's no way we're going to build this like we did the floors first and then we started working our way up doing caulking around the windows right there and putting up doors it was it was really fun," said Ethan Taylor, a junior at Career Tech High School in St. George.
Despite her petite stature, Career Tech High junior Kylie Guevara said she can still get it done.
"Yeah, Give me time and I'll put in effort and then it'll get done," she shared. "It takes a lot of collaborative work and a lot of communication to get it done."
Teacher Stephen Wilson says what the students learn building a home they can't get from a book.
"We were putting up some walls and a kid was standing, a student was in the corner and he said, 'I just build a wall for where someone is going to live.' Just hit him all of a sudden. He was just tickled to death with that, that he's got a house that he helped build," Wilson says.
