The windows beg to be noticed. Each has been carefully placed to afford a slightly different view — of the bluffs or of farmers' fields or of long stretches of red earth.

At mid-morning, a man named Baxter Benally emerges from a small blue house across the way and comes over to shake hands with the students. Benally has heard this may be their last day working on the house. He urges each of them to come back for a visit.

Benally and his wife, Dora, were the ones selected by the students to be the recipients of this home. The students talked to the Benallys about their needs and presented them with three designs. The Benallys chose this one.

Once they started the construction, the students modified their design. For example, they realized there wasn't enough cross ventilation, so they cut holes in the wall between the bedroom and hall and installed little shutters.

Architecture student Lindsay Holloman says there is a huge difference between drawing and building. She'd never built before she entered architecture school and now, she says, she'd never want to draw a house she couldn't work on later.

The Benallys helped with the construction, tidying up the site every evening and carrying the bricks as fast as the students could form them. Ultimately, 6,000 adobe bricks were required for the walls. Each brick weighs 30 pounds. As the Benallys and the students worked side by side, they became fond of each other.

Dora made fry bread for the students. Baxter taught them some Navajo words. Today, when he invites them, the students readily promise to come visit, after the Benallys have moved in.

The students say they are fairly sure Baxter will join Dora in their new home. Even though Baxter jokes about being fine where he is. And sometimes he talks about having a mortgage, and he doesn't sound like he is joking at all. He sounds hesitant, even suspicious.

Having lived in Bluff for most of the last year, having gotten to know a few Navajos and seen some of their frustrations, Brown can understand Benally's skepticism. But Brown also believes people eventually realize that there is no catch with the DesignBuild program. No one will kick them out of their house if they don't come up with $80 per month, or whatever amount HUD will suggest.

Louis says that when HUD officials gave the grant, they didn't understand the way land is handled on the reservation. Sites stay within families. No one can sell these homes on the open market, Louis explains, so a mortgage makes no sense to him or, he imagines, to the Navajos.