Students' construction skills impress homeowner
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
HILO, Hawai'i — Technically, Alan Tabayoyon wasn't supposed to visit the house under construction on East Kahaopea Street because he didn't actually own it yet. But he couldn't resist.
Kevin Dayton • The Honolulu Advertiser
He had to stop in periodically to check on the progress being made by crews of Hawai'i Community College students who built the house from scratch on a 10,000-square-foot lot in Pana'ewa at the edge of Hilo town.
Nathan Osorio, right, was among the Hawai'i Community College students who helped build this home in Pana'ewa.
For the students, the project on Hawaiian homelands was a real-life, hands-on training exercise leading up to their graduation with two-year vocational and technical degrees in areas such as carpentry and electrical work.
For Tabayoyon, a musician, the house is part of his renewed connection to Hawai'i after spending 26 years on the Mainland.
"There's nothing like it," Tabayoyon said. "You're at home. There's a sense of belonging ... There's nothing like being home."
Last week the four-bedroom house on East Kahaopea Street was blessed and the keys and plans presented to Tabayoyon and his wife, Jane. It is the 37th house students have built since the Model Home program began in 1965, and the college has used the program to help train almost 3,300 students over the years.
Kevin Dayton • The Honolulu Advertiser
State Department of Hawaiian Home Lands officials and college dignitaries wandered through the house to inspect the workmanship and were impressed. Richard Iha, project coordinator for DHHL, pointed out the students' attention to detail in the carpentry in the garage, in the solid Philippine mahogany kitchen cabinets, in the careful fabrication of the windows.
"I am totally impressed. I can't believe the craftsmanship," Alan Tabayoyon said about his new house.
"In the real world, they don't do that," Iha said. "In the real world, the carpenters cannot build you something like that."
Hawai'i Community College bid to build the home for the DHHL, completing the house for $107,000. Drafting students worked on the design, while carpentry and electrical students did the basic construction, and agricultural students installed the landscaping.
The arrangement is a great deal for the Tabayoyons, who will pay $107,000 for a structure appraised at $194,000, Iha said.
Tabayoyon said the house was a shell when he first visited the site. He said he was initially uncertain about having student workers build his new home. But he was eventually convinced, reasoning that it was in the students' interest to fix any mistakes.
"I am totally impressed. I can't believe the craftsmanship. I can't believe the caring and thought that went into building this place," he said, standing in his new living room.
From the students' perspective, working on a real house was far more useful than book learning or tinkering with a construction mock-up, said Nathan Osorio, who helped build the house.
"That way you put more effort and feeling into it," Osorio said. "People are actually going to come and live here, so we try to put a little more effort and care into the actual construction of the house."
Osorio, 33, served in the U.S. Army and used his educational benefits to pay for the training. He graduates from the community college program this week into a full-time job waiting for him with a Hilo contractor.
Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.
