CU Boulder students help rebuild professor’s Superior house
On the day of the Marshall Fire, Matt Morris placed a frozen burrito in the microwave for lunch, setting the timer for 1 minute and 45 seconds.
“When I hit start, everything was normal,” Morris said. “And before it beeped, we were gone.”
Morris, a principal instructor in engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, left his home in the Sagamore neighborhood in Superior with his family after a wall of fire hit the house suddenly, filling the air with smoke instantly.
Morris, his wife and two daughters, who were 6 and 13 at the time, lost everything in the fire. But, nearly two years later on Dec. 8, the family moved back in to their reconstructed home.
“It was a huge relief. Our family and I had a smile on our face for a week straight. It was obviously a different home, but we were back home,” Morris said. “It was a wonderful feeling to be back home, especially for the holidays.”
Morris rebuilt the home himself, with the help of numerous volunteers and two of his students. Morris and his two students constructed more than 80% of the new house themselves, completing the project in 15 months.
“You could see him work day in and day out, he was very very dedicated to getting back and living in his house the way he wanted to do it,” CU Boulder senior George Kurtz said. “It was pretty inspiring to see someone that devoted to completing a task or project, and it brings your own energy back up and makes you want to work harder.”
Morris was Kurtz’s professor for his introduction to construction class his junior year. Morris extended an offer to Kurtz’s class to help pour foundation into his home as an experiential learning opportunity.
Kurtz took Morris up on his offer and then joined the project permanently as a paid intern.
Daniel Donado, a doctoral student who’d also had Morris as a professor, decided to visit the construction site in November of 2022 and volunteer his time for a day.
“After that I just decided to go back, and from that moment on
I kept going back as much as I could until the house was finished,” Donado said.
Morris said Kurtz and Donado’s help was invaluable.
“It got me and my family back into our house, and there’s only so much I can do by myself,” Morris said. “So their help was enormous. I couldn’t have done it without them.”
Between his job at CU Boulder and rebuilding the house, Morris worked 14 to 16 hour days seven days a week for 15 months. He and his family stayed in five different houses in and around Boulder County, and Morris
said it was really hard on them.
“My wife was close to a single mom there for 15 months,” Morris said.
Morris, who had previously worked as a contractor, knew immediately when they lost the house that he wanted to rebuild it himself. It had been a dream of his to build his own home.
It was also important to Morris to rebuild the house stronger by including new technologies and a resilient framework to protect against future environmental threats. They designed an efficient ventilation system unique to the house, energy efficiency upgrades and chose to rebuild using concrete and steel.
Even though it was traumatic,
Morris said, his family is a lot closer after going through it. He was also amazed by the amount of people who donated their time and resources to help.
“You hear a lot of negative things in the world, and boy, we experienced a whole lot of positivity,” he said.
Donado said he decided to continue volunteering his time to the project because he felt called to do so.
“I’m a Christian, and throughout that process I was very committed to praying about it,” Donado said, adding, “I felt a strong calling to continue to show up and support him the best way I could.”
Looking back, Donado said, the experience changed him. He learned a lot about commitment, responsibility,
discipline and accountability.
“It was definitely emotional for me because I knew they were moving from house to house and it was a big transition process for them,” Donado said. “So seeing them settled in their house was really encouraging and really emotional for me.”
Kurtz said he learned a lot during the project because he worked with his hands for eight to 10 hours three days a week and participated in engineering conversations daily to figure out solutions.
He said the experience was extremely fulfilling.
“It really puts the biggest smile on your face to see a family move back into their home,” Kurtz said.