The houseboat was heap and Andy Heth knew it. He also saw potential in the neglected 35-foot Crest that had sat in its slip at Ohio’s Pleasant Hill Lake for a decade.

Heth, looking for a houseboat project, and had let the owner know he was interested if the boat ever came up for sale. When health issues prompted the family, who lived in Heth’s neighborhood, to give it up, he made good on his offer and purchased the craft.

Meanwhile, the local high school’s carpentry teacher, Andy Wigton, is always looking for projects to challenge his students at Madison Comprehensive High School in nearby Mansfield. A boater himself, he floated the idea past Heth of allowing his students to tackle the rehab job as a school project.