Construction underway on 2019 TRU Training House

Aug 15, 2018 | 5:07 PM

TOBIANO, B.C. — It was a little over a month ago that one lucky woman was named the winner of the 2018 Y Dream Home. 

Now, construction has begun on the next dream home, located in Tobiano. 

Thompson Rivers University students have been working on the 2019 Training House for almost a month. 

But today, the Canadian Home Builders’ Association Central Interior, TRU School of Trades and Technology and the Kamloops YMCA-YWCA celebrated the official kickoff to the construction of the home that will be raffled off next summer. 

“We’ve seen the floor plan. It’s a modern, contemporary looking home,” said YM-YWCA CEO Colin Reid. “It’s a bigger home than we’ve done in the last couple years. It’s a spectacular home that’s going to be on a nice corner lot out here in Tobiano.” 

While students construct the home, the CHBA oversees the project from beginning to end. 

“The CHBA acquires the property, along with the sponsorship of the developer, and then does all of the design for the home, oversees the entire project from start to finish until we have it complete, landscape it, and then turns it over to the Y.” said CHBA Central Interior First Vice President Kelly Reid. 

At that point, tickets are sold for the Y Dream Home Lottery, the YMCA’s biggest fundraiser, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. 

TRU students receive a hands-on education as they construct the home, a process that will take around nine months to complete. 

“Class started June 15, so I guess (we’ve been working) about a month now,” TRU Instructor Bryce Coombs said. “We were in class for just one week, just to do some orientation, a bit of safety, a bit of running through the ringer, and then one week later they’re here doing footings. You hit the ground running for sure.” 

Coombs says the training house is an opportunity for students to discover whether construction is a career they would like to pursue.