Lasko School of Log Building
3 Third Annual Fall Open Campus Event
You are invited to spend a day at the School of Log Building on Saturday, 28th of October, 2008!
The Lasko School of Log Building understands, after teaching hands-on log building workshops for over 18 years throughout North America that the average student attending has spent several years thinking about building their own log home. We know it is a process of several years in the making – a learning process. Reading an article here, a book there and then the log home shows with masses of others. We often hear how they wished they had decided to attend a hands-on log building workshop sooner for it answered hundreds of questions while giving them the requisite skills to build with logs at the same time. They leave skilled and with a clear vision on what to do next in achieving their goals. From full-scribe-to-fit, hewn-log with dovetails, post and sill construction and log roof systems, we inspire and instill the confidence to build well.
At this open-campus event you’ll see several log building projects in progress and be able to ask questions. Bill Lasko, your host and chief instructor, will present the hands-on approach used in teaching owner/builders to learn how to build their own handcrafted log home from scratch. Here is your chance to visit the school facility located at 8125 Whiteland Road, Martinsville, Indiana 46151 and see for yourself what you can do with your own timber and land.
Bill will speak on debt-free owner building and how you can begin to make your own plan to achieve this. Going beyond a mere introduction, Bill will answer questions and make suggestions that will aid you in developing a plan of action. You’ve expressed an interest in learning to build your own log home or to gain entry-level employment in the past and we have not forgotten you. We want to share our new facility and when you are ready, know you can get started anytime.
We will begin at 9:00 AM with a continental breakfast at 8:00. Lunch will be hot dogs, brats and Italian sausage on the grill with all the fix’ns – our treat. This is your day and opportunity to find answers that will allow you to move forward and make plans to build. There is no need to put it off any longer.
Please email us RSVP at LogSmithy@aol.com to let us know you would like to attend so we can be sure to accommodate all who wish to attend. This is a family-friendly event and encourages all to attend. Folks just like yourself who have received brochure and schedule information in the past are receiving this invitation from all over North America so come and enjoy the fall weather and meet others with similar interests! All registered attendees will receive a 10% off tuition of any workshop on the 2007 Workshop Schedule. This is in addition to the veteran’s 20% discount too! See you there! Also, the youngest in attendance will draw a name of registered attendees to win a new Stihl Chainsaw.
See you there!!
"Mr Lasko,
I have been on the fence about log building for some time now. It seems like a way I can do what I want and still have a meaningful career. The catch is that I am from northern Wisconsin, and I want to return there to settle down. My question is, do you think it is possible to return to a smaller, rural setting and still make enough money to support a family? Not trying to strike it rich, but make between 30,000 and 40,000 a year. What is the markup on say a standard log house shell? How long will it take me to get proficient enough to build on my own? Will I still be able to do it after 40?Perhaps these questions may be better answered via phone. My number is 608-695 _ _ _ _. I will return the call so it is free to you. Thank you and
have a great day.
Sincerely,
Paul C S." (Wisconsin)
Dear Paul,
I'll assume you want it straight and can take it.
Every single person that we train in our workshops are inexperienced and not just here to find out if they can do this - but also if they will want to. It's by no means the hardest work I have ever done, nor is it easy. They seem to get the "want to" by learning that they can in fact understand this 1500 year old tradition and fit logs tightly, confidently. They come to realize they no longer are the one's sitting on the fence, or on a local bar stool giving all sorts of advice on things they'd never get up off that bar stool to go and do, let alone finish.
When they realize they can take a pretty inexpensive set of logs and build something of high value and others want and admire - using renewable natural resources to create a rewarding living and home of their own - debt free - they're hooked. The rest is all about what they do with what they have learned. You can get back up on that fence - or you can show yourself (and them) you're going to actively pursue something worthwhile.
How could building a 28 x 36 log home from scratch with minnimal cash outlay and then later appraises for $300,000.00 or more be a bad idea? While you are here with us, we discuss the developement of a 3 to 5 year plan for you to do just that. It's been done by the folks that will ignore the state of their finances today enough to begin looking at their entire life instead. I began in Sparta, Wisconsin and if I can do it, so can you. Learning here and then working with a log builder in the area you mentioned is a good path to getting on your own and building for others. Having a strategic plan to follow that you sit back and reassess now and again each year is how you achieve any goals - this one is no differant.
I ask students how differantly their lives would have been had they not encumbered debt - specifically a 30 year mortgage. I hear answers like they could have chosen to start a business of their own, or been able to switch jobs and not work at something they don't like. Many young people get on their own, incurr bills and find a means readily available to pay those bills - meet a sweet young thing, get married and find it getting harder and harder to change what they do for a living - or be able to try things and see what they like. Better than 80% of them have answers along this scenario. Many follow that with saying they wished they would have come to learn this craft years and years ago.
You see, Paul, its not about how much you earn or make, its about what you get to keep and whether you can be happy living within your means. Once you have the needed experience and requisite log building skills and establish a business building for others, you get to determine what the means are you live within. Log building skills are just one very important step - but they bring into focus everything else. Not having this under your belt is like looking into a scope without adjustments possible.
Set your sites on where you want to go, the kind of life that would make you happy and put that 3 to 5 year plan together. Log building is not the simple answer for everyone - but I can tell you that pretty much all of us in it were sitting on that perverbial fence at one time or another and we all found something we think is very rewarding and very special. We get calls from builders seeking trained workers seeking help for a year or more - knowing full well many will go off on their own eventually. My 12 week students are particularily recruited hard. Our most recent 12 week grad was wanted by builders in 6 states and more than 10 companies, and then chose where he wanted to go!
You know yourself better than anyone else. You know how you best learn to do things. Our approach is constantly reinforcing a step by step process with a pratice area set aside for demonstrations, practice and students to return to to master things as we go along - this removes all the anxiety so learning can take place. Depending on your own experience around a job site and general constraution and tools - we offer 2, 4, 8 and 12 week hands-on workshops. Obviously, the longer the workshop the more you will be taught and it's the fast track to employment and eventually getting out on your own.
I hope this has been helpful in answering some of your questions. Our 2007 Spring workshops begin on the last Monday in February. Gear up!
All the best!
Bill
