SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — Students at Sioux City Career Academy spent the last school year building a home from the ground up that will be donated to a South Dakota couple whose home was destroyed in recent flooding.
The Carrier Academy House is now the future home of Dave and Judy Oberg, who recently lost their home of more than 50 years.
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“We always assume that we’re going to stay in the same place forever, but Mother Nature has changed that idea a little bit,” Dave Oberg said.
After their home was destroyed by flooding from the Big Sioux River, the couple found a new home in an unexpected place.
“The day we finally got back to look at houses right after the flood, we got a call from the school district saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got a vacant house,'” Dave says. “We looked at the costs and found that it could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars plus to fix up the existing house, and this house was vacant, and the price they quoted was less than what we thought it would cost to fix up the old house.”
“So we jumped in, won the bid and here we are,” Judy said.
The Obergs will soon be living in a three-bedroom home built by third-year architecture students at Sioux City Career Academy.
“It’s always been really important to us that this scholarship go to a worthy and deserving family,” said Career Academy Principal Eric Kilburn, “and to know that it’s going to a family that needs it, not just wants it, it’s just perfect. It’s a really wonderful ending to this chapter in our story.”
“They did a great job and we’re very excited,” Judy said. “We want them to come and see where the house is going to be once it’s moved and congratulate themselves and know what a great job they did and how grateful we are that they built this house.”
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Now that they’ve survived the floods and left the home they’ve lived in for their whole lives, the Oberg family is ready to start a new life.
“It makes me feel better knowing it was built by kids. There are so many memories attached to the old house so it makes me feel better to see that young kids built it,” Judy said.
The house is scheduled to be moved to the Oberg family property on Aug. 12, with the journey from the Harry Hopkins campus in Sioux City to rural Jefferson, South Dakota, taking roughly four hours.