Community Blitz Build project starts building 9 houses in 9 days

FISHERSVILLE, Va. (WHSV) – Brad Bryant is on a mission to build nine houses in nine days, and a team of carpentry students, community organizations and volunteers are coming together to make it happen.

Joint project led by Bryant from Valley Career and Technical Center and Augusta Home Builders AssociationIt will start on Saturday and last until October 6. In these nine days, the team behind the project will build nine small-sided, cottage-style houses, each measuring approximately 450 square meters and containing one bedroom, one bathroom and a living area. .

Bryant led the blitz for the first time since camping in Waynesboro. Tent City was dismantledThat’s when he started thinking about how he could “make some change” to help address housing insecurity and the lack of affordable housing in the area, he said. This resulted in the construction of a 1,400-square-foot, two-story house for a non-profit organization in 2022.

Two years later, Bryant wanted to expand the project and build more homes for local community organizations. Bryant also saw Build as an important opportunity for Valley Tech carpentry students to work with Augusta County contractors for a hands-on learning experience that he said is essentially a job interview. Despite the rain from Hurricane Helene, Bryant said the group “kept working” as its 38 current students and 40 to 60 graduates prepared homes, laid foundations and gathered materials to begin work Saturday.

“‘Hey, you can’t drink a half-full glass unless there’s some water in it, right?'” Bryant said. “We were saying,” he said. “They were out there doing what they had to do… so I’m proud of them, totally proud of all of them.”

During this year’s build launch, Bryant said the community “did some incredible things” to support the team leading up to Build, including discounted labor and donated materials from some project sponsors, which helped reduce overall costs. The nine homes will go up for auction when they are completed on October 6. Once the initial investment from sponsors, Valley Tech and AHBA, is recouped, the auction will end and the remaining homes will be donated to nonprofit organizations, Bryant said.

The auction preview will run from 4pm to 6pm on October 7th, followed by an online and live auction on October 9th at 4pm.

Click here To contact AHBA about volunteering, donating to the cause, and seeing the full schedule of Construction.