Last week had a lot of ups. Example: Joe Theriault got the ice off our roof before the mid-week storm. Example: Late one morning, I sashayed into All That Jazz and asked for a manicure “right now.” I got it! Example: The amaryllis (Feb. 26) bloomed last Thursday, sometime around 9 p.m. Beautiful.

Last, but far from least, I visited The House on Mineral Springs Road.

My heart is here but at heart I’m from southern Ohio and, therefore, not so brave as your average River Valley native: Striking out on unknown roads in winter gives me a little shiver. But Region 9 Director Brenda Gammon urged me to have a look at the work of the building construction class on a new house over in Peru, and it sounded too good to miss.

“Go one-and-a-half miles on the Ridge Road, turn right on Gammon Road. Another mile and a half will bring you to an intersection. Turn left and you’ll see the house.” Brenda left out the steep ups and downs on Gammon Road, and the rutty pools of slush and ice at its intersection with Mineral Springs Road.

There is a reason for her omission: She is not from southern Ohio.

Anyway, it wasn’t a bad drive at all. The narrow driveway at the Region 9 project house was jammed with vehicles. One, a black Jeep, had been driven up a snowbank and rested at a 45-degree angle.

“One of the students did that. He’s a kid,” teacher Lloyd Williams explained. “If he can’t move it, he knows the others will tow him out – after they give him a bad time.”

Inside the house was a lot of noise and activity, but not a lot of talk. One team was installing a bathroom door. Another was having a challenge hanging a kitchen cabinet. Williams gave me some history of the Region 9-Community Concepts building project, interrupted along the way by questions and quandaries. The bathroom door frame wasn’t cooperating, so Mr. Williams, out in the hall, talked the students in the bathroom through the work of getting it straight.

These intervals gave me a chance to meet the students. There are 12 of them, all high school seniors. One, Josh Spaulding of Carthage, was absent on Friday. All the others were present, and, in the way of youth, were careful not to look too interested in me, but friendly when approached.

Adam Gatchell (Peru) and Jacob Brooks (Carthage) were working at a fancy-looking, very loud saw – a sliding compound saw, Adam told me. The house on Mineral Springs Road is their first off-site construction job. “Last year we built sheds,” Adam told me.

Are you having fun? I asked. “Oh yeah,” replied Brian Berry, whose cousin Jeremy Jackson, also of Carthage, is a classmate. Six or more of the 12 building construction classmates will go on to post-secondary education. Brian is one of them. He’ll go on to technical school in Norwell, Mass. Asked if he would return to the River Valley, Brian’s response was what we want to hear, over and over again: “I’m coming back to Maine.” He added that his dad has a business in Carthage and “I want to live there.”

Region 9 is the second in the area (Region 11 was first) to partner with Community Concepts Inc., in affordable housing construction. Williams, a Region 9 teacher for 25 years, says the partnership between the nonprofit Community Concept’s Housing Department and Region 9 is a powerful and mutually helpful one.

He notes that a stipend the nonprofit pays Region 9 covers the costs of new textbooks and safety goggles and helmets that students can keep, and scholarship aid for community college. “This project doesn’t cost the taxpayer a thing.”

Once the house is completed in late May the “starter home” will be sold through Community Concepts’ real estate program, Home Quest. (For information on buying and financing, contact Community Concepts, 743-7716.)

Of course I had a tour of the house. The living, dining, and kitchen area are one; down a hall, a small laundry room, three bedrooms, a full and a half bath. Nice. But my favorite space: the basement! Because there are no supporting columns – instead pre-fabricated trusses – the ceiling is high (nine feet?) and on one end a door at ground level. Future family room or additional bedrooms? The new owners will decide.

“I think this is house No. 10,” Williams told me. The houses “have gotten a little bit larger,” over a decade and the design more open.

The 10 houses are scattered throughout the region. The students, most in this class have been together for at least two years, come from all over the River Valley and beyond, depending on your view of Bethel: in or out?

Three live right there on Mineral Springs Road in Peru: Justin Larson, Matt Ferland and Adam Gatchell. Three hail from Carthage; John Farrington is from Bethel (and Telstar); Justin Woods, East Andover; Cody Spaulding, from Rumford; Anthony Jordan, from Canton; and Jeremy Bellegarde, of Dixfield.

A regional class of building construction students. A great class. “Any teacher will tell you,” Williams said, “some years you get a great class and some years you don’t. This year, I have a great class,” building a house on Mineral Springs Road.

Linda Farr Macgregor lives with her husband, Jim, in Rumford. She is a freelance writer. Contact her: [email protected]