Photos by Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Student Chuck Moore, 17, works on a house near Fincastle. The building has been for sale since August with no offers.

Officials with the Botetourt County Public Schools Education Foundation, (from left) Jay Gilliland, Todd Wampler and Bob Patterson, and Phillip Simmons, building trades instructor, meet inside the home in the upscale Santillane subdivision outside Fincastle off U.S. 220.

The kitchen has stainless steel appliances and cherry wood cabinets.

It seemed like a good idea back in 2005 when the real estate market was on a roll.

The nonprofit Botetourt County Public Schools Education Foundation partnered with the school system's building trades program to help students get some hands-on knowledge of the housing industry. The foundation bought construction materials and a lot in the upscale Santillane subdivision outside Fincastle off U.S. 220.

Over the next two years, students from the Botetourt Technical Education Center in Fincastle made the construction site their classroom as they sawed, mitered and nailed together a four bedroom, three bath, 1¹₂ story brick ranch house.

And if the housing market had cooperated, all would have been fine with the project, called Books2Bricks.

The home has a range of custom features, including smart wiring, hardwood floors and a gas fireplace framed in stone. The modern kitchen has stainless steel appliances, Corian countertops and cherry wood cabinets.

The proceeds from the sale of the house were to go into another student-built home and other foundation projects.

But since the 3,300-square-foot house went up for sale in August, the slumping housing market has taken it toll. The house hasn't received a single purchase offer.

"We haven't had the buyer show up yet," said Jay Gilliland, the foundation's building committee chairman. Gilliland, a vice president at the Bank of Fincastle, said the real estate market was in much better shape when the land for the house was bought nearly three years ago.

"When we purchased the land in 2005, the real estate market was still growing," he said. "Sometimes you have conditions where it's a seller's market and then you have conditions where it's more of a buyer's market. The students have had the education of what happens when you have a change in the cycle."

The house is priced at $469,950. That's about $30,000 less than the original asking price.

But in that price range, there's at least 40 other homes in the vicinity of U.S. 220 for sale, said Todd Wampler of Wampler Realty. He's the listing agent on the house and a member of the foundation.

"We've had about three people a month look at it," Wampler said.

Included with the sale of the home is a year's membership to Ashley Plantation Country Club just down the road. But still no offers.

From a learning perspective, however, the program is still considered a success.

"The most important thing to us was that the students get the hands-on experience," said Bob Patterson, a Roanoke lawyer and the foundation's president. "It wasn't let's get it built in six months so we can sell it. They participated in, I would say, 95 percent of the construction of this house."

"They turned out a nice project," class instructor Phillip Simmons said of the students.

The class is designed to give students skills they can use to find jobs after graduating from high school.

Simmons graded students on their abilities in carpentry, masonry, plumbing and electrical skills. If they didn't perform a certain task correctly, he had them do the work over again. What the students couldn't finish during the school year, either Simmons, a licensed contractor, did himself, or hired other professionals to complete.

In all, about 70 contractors, suppliers and tradesmen assisted with the project.

"It was overwhelming the amount of support from those in the industry," Gilliland said. "Essentially what we found was, one of the problems that they have is finding good, skilled help. And they would love to be able to work with our students through the program with the possibility of getting some skilled help."

Even when the house is sold, the program may not be able to continue. Federal legislation is pending that could halt the use of power tools by students.

That would mean students in the school's building program would have to return to building the type of modular homes built in the past on school grounds, or only be able to use their skills in the classroom.

"This is a project that we would absolutely do again," Gilliland said, if students are given permission.

On the Net: www.books2bricks.com