Oct 
Friends of Vocational Technical & Agricultural Education,
We are excited to share the work of students from Diman Regional Technical Vocational High School are building a custom home in Westport!!
David
Diman students hammer out a rare custom home in Westport
Emily Scherny The Herald News March 12, 2026
- Students from Diman Regional Technical Vocational High School are building a custom home in Westport.
- The project provides students with hands-on experience in trades like carpentry, electrical, and plumbing.
- The all-electric home features modern, energy-efficient technology and trendy design.
- Applications for the program have declined due to rising material costs and complex building codes.
- Diman’s 2026-2027 homebuilding application portal is open now.
WESTPORT — The market for custom-built homes is dwindling, says Jeff Cabral, the site coordinator for the Diman Regional Technical Vocational High School homebuilding program. The rising cost of building materials, matched with more robust energy efficient code requirements, and a growing demand for an all-electric home have made homebuilding, in a word, “complex,” said Cabral. But the Diman students whose vocational study of carpentry, metal fabrication, electrical, HVAC and plumbing at work in and outside of the 19,000-sqaure-foot home at 42 Crane Ave. in Westport call this annual project “fun.” “It’s a great opportunity at a younger age,” said student Katelyn Murray, adding that the kind of training she has received while watching the one-story, multi-stall garage home go up is irreplaceable.
It’s unbelievable,” said Akasha DeOliveira, a student working alongside Murray.
Ben Courville, an HVAC student, said he’s spent valuable site visits cutting out spaces for exhaust vent installation in the kitchen.
Diman students have had a hand in the construction every weekday since the start of the school year in September. Despite the snow derailing the schedule some, Courville says the timeline and completion date have been somewhat recovered as the home nears completion for the middle of June.
Along the way of visible progress week-to-week, students have partnered with the property’s owners to meet their requests and last-minute considerations. The electric fireplace, Courville, DeOliveira and Murray mentioned, needed a slight placement adjustment which was easily satisfied.
Diman students are building ‘stretch code’ home: What’s inside
Since the foundation was laid in the summer, said Pete Chace, the electrical instructor, Diman students from a range of vocational shops have set to work building a “stretch code home”—one that is outfitted to accept electrical vehicle ports, or solar.
The all-electric home is gaining the “latest and greatest technology,” complete with energy-saving LED lighting, Chace said.
The open-concept blueprint is destined for more than the flow of unity in the home, and details signal new design trends that have taken domestic spaces by storm: the kitchen will have an island, but the adjacent pantry is the place for simple food preparation or appliance storage — keeping the kitchen itself clean and presentable.
The bathroom attached to the primary bedroom branches into alcoves for a separate commode, and a soaking tub. A sizable linen closet and laundry space are connected, and the floor plan has been able to accommodate not one but two walk-in closets. To the tune of a cacophony of hammering, Chace said the downstairs basement would be left unfinished but would contain a heating pump and could accept a generator hookup. The property has its own well, too.
One house built in one school year — here’s how
In addition to the one residential blueprint that satisfies all application requirements and is vetted for construction as Diman’s “home of the year,” students also work on commercial or industrial projects. In the past, they have partnered with PrimaCARE, and the Fall River and Somerset Water Departments.
Marc O’Connor, who leads the metal fabrication shop, said his students typically arrive on side every morning at 8:30 a.m., and work diligently until half past noon.
The landowners hired a team of architects to nail down the design before handing over the site plans to Diman, Chace said, which were approved to be carried out in the span of the 2025-2026 school year.
Here’s how to apply to Diman’s homebuilding program
Cabral confirmed that as the desire for homebuilding wanes, so has applicant interest in Diman’s homebuilding program.
With only a handful of requirements needed, folks interested in having students build their next home can apply online, and assume savings of up to $100,000, to $200,000 in labor costs.
To apply you must:
- Own buildable land or be approved for financing.
- Be permitted by Aug. 1.
- Have an approved site plan for a single-family home by Aug. 1.
- The foundation must be poured by Aug. 1.
- The project must be in Fall River, Somerset, Swansea, or Westport.
- All owners must be residents of the above cities or towns,
- At least one owner must be 21 or older.
The call for applications is being advertised online, and the portal will remain open until a project is selected in the next couple of months between April and May, Cabral said.
The students, who do not get paid, receive course credit and a leg up in terms of experience.
The COVID-19 pandemic also shrunk the popularity of the program, Cabral said, citing economic downturns and skyrocketing markets for existing real estate. In pre-COVID times, Diman consistently received up to five applications. Last year, it received two.
Cabral said projects like the one on Crane Avenue “train them for the future,” and students who actively worked at their trade in the homebuilding program can command higher pay in their respective fields after graduation.
Chapter 74 Vocational Technical & Agricultural Education
LEARNING THAT WORKS FOR MASSACHUSETTS
David J. Ferreira
MAVA Communications Coordinator
DavidFerreira