Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 12/14/2023
WESTFIELD — The house on 64 Mill St. that is being built by Westfield Technical Academy juniors and seniors in construction tech, cabinetmaking, electrical wiring, and horticulture is nearing completion, according to lead construction instructor Matthew Gomes, who also designed the house. Groundbreaking began in December 2022 and is projected to be completed by February 2024.
“It’s going incredibly well. We got a late start last year, but it’s going really fantastic,” Gomes said this week. He expects the house to be 100 percent ready for sale in February. It will be fully landscaped with plantings. “Most new construction doesn’t have that,” he said.
The 2,200 sq. ft. Cape-style house will have four bedrooms, two and a half baths, a main bedroom suite on the first floor, and an open kitchen, living room and dining room.The house also features a mudroom and oversized one-car garage, an outdoor patio living area and walkway, and newly poured concrete sidewalks.
Gomes said there are a lot of high end features in the house, thanks to generous donations from the community. “A big driving force of the project is so much has been donated,” he said.
Construction Tech junior Avalise Davis was inside the house on Dec. 7 working on finishing a piece of the beech hardwood flooring. “We have to do each piece individually,” she said, making certain of the measurements and angles. After placement, they will be putting in a filling and a finish on the floor. “I love it. It’s engaging. I think it’s a really good trade, good money, good social connections,” Davis said.
Outside, juniors in the horticulture shop were completing the patio out of concrete pavers donated by Ondrick Natural Earth in Chicopee. Lead horticulture instructor Nate Sperry said his students started on the project in October, installing the top soil and starting the lawn. “Students got experience understanding when and how to put in a lawn,” Sperry said.
The house is a project of the newly formed Westfield Technical Foundation, a non-profit entity set up to benefit the school, enabling WTA to borrow the money to buy the property and build the house from the Polish National Credit Union at zero percent interest. When the home is completed, it will be sold and proceeds will go back into the school’s programs.
“It really is in a fantastic area - walking distance to the park, the hospital and the Mill on Crane Pond. There is a lot of lively high-end cultural activity,” Gomes said, adding that he grew up around the corner. He said the school plans to have a public unveiling once the house is completed this winter.