www.LaskoSchoolofLogBuilding.com

Pricing

Stock plans are $1.50 per square foot All changes are at an hourly rate of $75 per hour. Estimates gladly given. Repeat sale discounts available.

Foundation Plan

The foundation plans shows a complete detailed drawing showing all dimensions (including post and beam locations) needed to construct the foundation and components. This includes the basement layout on a concrete slab.

Floor Plans

The floor plans shows each floor of the house with all the required framing dimensions, including all door and window sizes and their locations.

Building Section

A cross section is provided that shows typical walls from the footings to the roofline, including stair details, floor and deck framing, insulation info, and all necessary information is included.

Exterior Elevations

Drawings are provided for the front, rear, left and right sides of the house. They also show its appearance with a particular material finish such as log, cedar and stucco and LP siding.

Roof Framing Plan

Details are provided for layout of the roof framing and materials.

What is not included:

Heating and Plumbing Plan

Variations in climate and building codes can require different specs. Heating and plumbing bids are typically supplied by local subcontractors after reviewing your drawings.

Electrical Plans are an option and are not included but can be done for an extra price. Please contact us about electrial.

Material Quantity List

This list should be obtained from the contractor you choose or from your local lumber and building materials supplier.

Construction Cost Analysis

An accurate cost estimate can be made by a local builder after they review the plans. The contractor should provide the material quantity list. Costs may vary depending on choice of materials, labor and finish details.

PLAN SITE OFFER

Need a plansite? Contact us about your official page, showcasing our stock plans with your logo. Or we can incorporate your stock plans for you. Banner advertising on Log Homes on the Internet included.

Here at the Lasko School of Log Building we do more to give you every opportunity to plan, build and live debt-free in your own handcrafted log home.

Things like;

# We promote a full schedule each year for your busy schedule.

# We offer two and four week hands-on workshops so vacation time can be planned.

# Graduates can attend any number of subsequent workshops tuition-free.

# Our Hosting Program makes it possible for graduates of our school of log building to

have us come to their property and have their log building project be the workshop

project! (Check web page for Hosting Program for details and Hosting fees.

# Our students can bring a companion to attend and take part in both the two and the

four week workshops for an additional $250.00 and share tools as well (so two sets of

tools do not have to be purchased. Safety gear still e required).

# We make a set price for our time to stay after a scheduled / Hosted Log Building

Workshop up to a year in advance in our Hosting Agreement so you know what it will

cost if you should request us to stay and help complete the log shell. (Hosts are

encouraged to attend the workshop and then complete the walls and then have us

return to help with log roof systems.)

# Host sites can be located anywhere in the world. (Host Fees for destinations outside of

continental USA may require adjustment to off-set travel / training costs).

# House logs are for sale, peeled and unpeeled (as time permits - Fall/winter cutting

season only).

# Student testimonials are posted for you to see.

# We encourage professional log builders to post their help wanted ads on our web

site for free and offer placement assistance for you

# Graduates (and others) may participate in our Class Projects Purchasing Program and

have their custom-built handcrafted log home built here at the school by students in

hands-on log building workshops at tremendous savings exceeding 50 to 60%!

# We encourage students to develop a five year plan, while attending class, to acheive

their building goals with a debt-free out-come and offer resources to aid in making that

plan work..

"Our committment to teaching the craft of building with logs for owner/builders and entry-level log builders requires us to refrain from custom contracting log homes as we feel it would divide our loyalties and focus. We will be involved with custom building projects here at the school with the associate instructors themselves principly manning the projects and with our future plans to have an apprenticeship program - we will keep viable projects scheduled to both pay for the labor and meet costs, while keeping tuition costs the same for as long as we can. It just makes good sense to have real, viable projects for students to work on in hands-on log building workshops. and it has a mimimal incidence of minor booboos too!

The best way for most people to learn is by actual hands-on opportunities with the guidance of a skilled log builder. Many of our students agree and after having bought all the books and videos and spending more than the price of tuition, say that it is very likely the only way to learn this craft. I would like the opportunity to be your log building instructor and coach through your building experience.

The advent of email has made it possible for me to answer questions and get messages from graduates building their projects with great ease. Take the first step and call 1 800 292-8043 and request our informative color brochure - then leave a best time and number to reach you at and I will personally call you then and listen to your ideas and questions and plans for learning the craft and building that affordable handcrafted log home from scratch - and possibly debt-free."

So, you see, we do more than anyone else to help you build your own handcrafted log home than any other log building school!

- Bill Lasko

Hosting The School of Log Building

The primary purpose of the Host Program is to provide access to the type of hands-on training needed to learn the requisite skills for building a handcrafted log cabin or log home. It takes us more places, closer to more people who would otherwise not be able to attend. It provides viable log building projects for the students to learn-by-doing in a hands-on setting. And, it gets a lot done in a very short period of time on your log building project!

Hosting the school is first available to our graduates of at least our two week workshops. You get to meet us and see what we do and how and why we do it the way we do, and to get to know us as well. You'll see and learn what you need to do to prepare for a group of people conveging from around the country to your land and begin building your log shell. Your building plans will be established and the Log Building Workshop scheduled one year or so from the time a Host Agreement is made.

The above project began on June 18th, 2002 with two students - the photo is time stamped with 2002 8 4 - just a scant 7 weeks later. One student attended for a two week program and stayed 11 days while the other was there for the four weeks - and was hired to stay on for an extra week as was myself for the last 3 weeks. Though our classes are normally 5 to 8 students, its not a science in knowing who will come and the kind of past work experience they will have. Smaller class size actually has its advantages - and it is certainly a plus for the students.

It has 12 corners, shrink-to-fit saddle knotches 8 window and door openings, four trusses and log purlins and log rafter roof support system, two lofts and about 2600 SF assembled from scratch on a prepared foundation with sub-floor by Host. You want to bet they are tickled to death?! ha!

Remember, we lean very strongly towards selecting Hosts that have attended a workshop first or otherwise demonstrate the ability to get the site prepared for the students arrival and participation. If you have any plans of building in the next year, contact us soon as we need a year to make plans for it and recruit students.

Tuition & Accomodations Fees

We are very excited about finally making arrangements to locate the school just South of Bloomington, Indiana just outside of a small town called Harrodsburg and near Nashville, Indiana in Brown County!

We started in the Fall of 1991 with classes at West Boggs Park near Loogootee, Indiana and quickly became a traveling school, going where we were sponsored in one capacity or another. Often we were Hosted by former students to help them get a great start on their handcrafted log home project. The dream of finally owning our own land to support a custom log building enterprise in conjunction with teaching a schedule of classes is getting closer and closer!

For now, we are going to be locating a few miles South of Bloomingon, Indiana West of Harrodsburg at 4575 West Popcorn Road, a scant 12 minutes from Mall area on Hwy 37 in Bloomington and 25 minutes from down town Nashville, Indiana. Some of the changes we will be implementing right away will be the building of three framed structures for use as a shower cabin, a bunkhouse cabin and a cabin for preparing meals for the students. These framed structures will be replaced with handcrafted log cabins built during hands-on Log Building Workshops starting there this year!

The move to do so is to make it more convenient for the students to attend with a warm, comfortable, and dry place to sleep, a place to prepare meals with stove and refridgeration provided by the school and also hot showers at the end of the day. A small log framed post and beam pavilion to shelter a handcrafted log picnic table will also be done as well as a place to gather around a camp fire most nights. Cabins will be lit at night by kerosene lamps and heated by wood burning stoves.

Students will be free to just bring their own food they want, their clothes and tools, and certainly a cooler for their own beverages! There are restaurants nearby and also hotels available. It is our hope we can provide this at such a low cost to the students it is more affordable than coming to stay without these amenities.

The cost for an individual to attend a log-building workshop has been $850.00 each. That person can bring a companion at an additional $250.00; in fact, the companion can attend the four-week workshops with you also for the same amount of $250.00.

The tuition for an individual to attend a four-week log-building workshop is $1550.00.

All students are required to bring a set of tools and safety gear we have listed for them on our website, those attending with an accompanying pal can share their set of tools. All participants must have their own safety gear for obvious reasons.

The second person discount is intended for relatives to participate, i.e. husband-wife, father-son cousins and so on. Please call ahead for attendance openings so arrangements can be made.

The cost to each attending participant for hot showers and bunkhouse / cabins, and kitchen cabin, in addition to the above tuition schedule, is FREE. (Place to keep, store and prepare own meals, hot showers and sleeping accommodations.)

Individual students for two weeks with accommodations = $850.00,

Four weeks with accommodations = $1550.00

A two week companion = $250.00, a four week companion = $250.00

(Often what happens is the two attending together split it down the middle so it's less expensive to come in pairs!)

Owner Builders

There is good news for those people who hold to striving to build and live debt-free. There are volatile elements of the economy that have led to the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates and that keeps going lower and lower. While many are clamoring to build new now while the interest rates are the lowest they have been some have watched as one element of our economy reveal corruption and abuse of share holders investments and wonder how the economy will absorb it all.

Indicators are reported to be pointing towards a major economic upturn in the next 3 to 6 months and as it happens, the Federal Reserve will be watching and keep the prime lending rates instep with the economy. I can't kick about this "hand on the pulse "of our nation's economy but its still about debt and that will never change. When the rates increase as the economy rebounds your mortgages will show that your property is worth more than you owe on it. This happened in the early 80's with farmers in America. Property values soared and lenders were heavily proposing land owners take advantage of the economy at that time then a few scant years passed and the property values fell back to previous levels or lower. Many lost their farms to bankruptcy and were forced to sell. Thousands of farms were lost inside a 3 year time frame.

That's what farm-aid was all about. Willie Nelson was right the government has a budget for the USDA to fund programs like CPR where farmers are paid to not work their land but couldn't come up with a way to help buffer the results of the banks aggressively seeking to loan money to land owners WHO WERE NOT SEEKING to do so in the first place based on economic upturns.

I'm no economist able to take masses of data and predict what will happen next but debt is still best used as a tool to get you where you want to go even secured debt like a home. Fine, use the lower interest rates to pay to have what you can't do your self as you build your own handcrafted log home from scratch. But debt still and always will be a bad idea. Long term mortgages are the worst. The avalanche of credit card and loan offers seem to grow and grow with messages of putting you in control, letting you enjoy what you want now etc. etc. Yada, yada, yada! Ignore them and live debt-free.

Living debt-free is not a whimsical and trendy choice it's a way of life. It's a discipline that gives you a piece of mind. Living debt-free is real security in a scary and volatile economy. It's the best investment you can make for you! Learning to build with logs teaches you how to use a natural renewable resource and create something that have a track record of existing in excess of 800 years - compare this to the structural lifespan of modern homes being built today. (50 years at best most are 30 years).

The choice to live debt-free must be a conviction as opposed to a preference. Unless it's applied to all areas of money management its benefits are never truly realized.

No matter what the economy is up to we here at the Lasko School of Log Building still encourage it and introduce some practical ideas on achieving your goal to build debt-free. That's some of the good news! So, when you are ready to take the next step and attend a hands-on Log Building Workshop we're here!

The Great Lake's Log Crafters Association remembers its roots and wants to preserve access to the craft of log building for Owner/Builders by being an association of professional log builders sharing industry knowledge and resources and encourage their participation in the association gatherings as a part of the whole process of learning to build and complete their own log homes. See and book mark www.GLLCA.org. This web site is about to become quite active and I am delighted to say there is plenty for all of you get from activities as members. A membership level is being created for new members once you have completed a Log Building Workshop as a graduate of the Lasko School of Log Building you'll be automatically enrolled for one year starting in 2004. Check out WWW.LHOTI.com for the most helpful informative and active log home forum on the entire World Wide Web.