Keeping with the eclectic Rural Studio style, Music Man's house is a menagerie of donated and discarded materials.

It starts with a gate just off the highway, built from wrought-iron hog wire and tin and plastic signs that were lying around the property. The gate even has an opening through which Music Man can ride his motor scooter.

The house itself is made mostly of wood and metal, but it has unusual features throughout. Hanging from the ceiling of the main room are shelves that can slide on old skateboard wheels from one wall to the opposite one. When the shelving unit is on the kitchen side of the room, half the shelves are open; the other half are open when the unit moves across the room. Pieces of colorful glass bottles are sunk in cement, forming a tiled floor. The shower room uses the grooved bed liner from a pickup truck to drain water.

The students worked on their design alongside Music Man, who is listed in the phone book as M.E. Cancer - he says it stands for Mr. Eyes Cancer - and who also identifies himself as Jimmy Lee Matthews. Blending his requests with their own ideas, they learned how to work with a client, the kind of experience that is rare in conventional architectural education.