TUPELO, Miss. (AP) — A group of Tupelo high school students is finishing construction of a tiny house a year after the project was put on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reports that the students at Tupelo Career-Technical Center began work on the house in January 2020 with a $10,000 grant from the Association for Excellence in Education.

When the pandemic hit and schools shut down, the project had to stop. The walls of the tiny house were up, but the roof wasn’t even framed yet.

Tupelo students returned to the classroom in August 2020, and work on the tiny house resumed. The students have now almost completed the roof.

The 288 square-foot (27 square-meter) house will include a living room and kitchen space, a bedroom area and a bathroom with a standard-sized shower. In the coming weeks, students will install plumbing and start insulating the inside.

The plan is to auction off the house and use that money to construct another the following year.

Construction teacher Scott Bridges said while the last year has been challenging for students, they're learning a valuable lesson.

“Getting back to normality, getting back to finishing the project we started last year, it showed dedication to our work,” he told the Daily Journal. “It showed our students that sometimes we have to pause, but we can come back and complete what we start even though it is a year later.”

That lesson applies to an “education, a career, whatever,” Bridges said.