YOUR LOG HOME SHOULD COST A LOT LESS (UP TO HALF AS MUCH) IF YOU ATTEND THE SEMINAR AT LEAST TWO YEARS BEFORE YOU START TO BUILD.

By following these tips, many of our members are able to build their log home debt free and avoid the bondage of a 30-year mortgage. If you think building a log home is too difficult for you, you should try paying off a 30-year mortgage.

THE REASONS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

1. Skip encourages his students to purchase all of their "building" material from ALTERNATIVE SOURCES. By doing this, his students are sometime able to save half the cost of their log home.

However, it usually takes time to do the necessary "shopping."

Within reason, the more time you spend shopping, the more money you will save when you build your home.

HERE ARE SOME IMPORTANT EXAMPLES:

A) One of Skip's students recently purchased logs from the Forrest Service for 25 cents per log. He paid 50 cents for each tree, but he was able to get two logs from each tree. This meant that the logs for his structure cost almost nothing. However, it took time to make the arrangements for the purchase, the cutting, the hauling, etc.

B) Skip always gets his building material, tools, appliances, etc., at country auctions -- salvage dealers -- flea markets -- swap meets -- garage sales -- yard sales -- rummage sales -- estate auctions -- pawn shops -- classified ads in local papers -- second-hand stores -- Little Nickel Want Ad Papers -- Buy-Sell Papers -- demolition sites -- surplus stores -- etc.

C) It is often true that "used" items are better than the same items that are being manufactured and sold today. Keeping this in mind, students can often get excellent items FREE (from alternative sources).

These free items might include the following; bathtubs, toilets, sinks, kitchen cabinets, kitchen appliances, fasteners, hinges, windows, doors, lumber, insulation, carpets, reinforcing rod, AND EVEN A FREE MOBILE HOME TO LIVE IN TEMPORARILY -- WHILE BUILDING THEIR LOG HOME.

2. Most of Skip’s students draw their own plans (so their home can be designed and built correctly). Most of them are successful when they submit their plans to the Building Code Department. This is not a process that should be done in a hurry. Students often draw their plans, bring them to a free meeting of the Log House Builders Association of North America (near Seattle), have them constructively criticized by the other builders, make any corrections that are recommended, bring the plans to the next meeting to be "checked over" again, etc.

It is usually NOT necessary to purchase plans -- because at the meetings, there are usually many plans to look at, and the builders who own the plans are often willing to GIVE copies away.

When looking at the plans and models at the meetings, people often find a home that is perfect for them -- and they are able to obtain the plans (free of charge) from other people at the meeting.

3. Skip’s students are always encouraged to attend several of the free monthly meetings before they start to draw their plans. This enables them to see plans and scale models that belong to other builders -- and exchange ideas with them.

A person who is not trained in log home building should never try to design a log home.

4. When the "newcomers "talk to the "old-timers" at the meetings, they are often able to obtain copies of pre-existing plans that would be suitable for their own log home. They are often able to obtain copies of these plans for free – thereby saving a lot of time and money.

As they say in the construction industry… "Time is money."

5. After drawing their plans (or otherwise obtaining them), the students generally build a scale model of their log home, using ˝" dowels. The model is taken to the next meeting where it is constructively criticized by the other builders. At the meetings, you always hear people say how glad they are that they built a scale model of their home before they built the real thing.

On the average it saves a lot of time to build a model before building the real home.

6. There are MANY more reasons why it is a good idea to learn about log homes at least a couple of years prior to building.

However, for our purposes here, it will suffice to say that the more "lead" time you have, the LESS EXPENSIVE your log home will be – and the BETTER it will be.

IMPORTANT

Skip will not accept people in his seminar if they have already started to build their log home, because by that time they have made too many mistakes that are not correctable.

No matter where you got your plans, we recommend that you not do ANYTHING until you learn how log homes SHOULD be built.

Back to How to Save up to 50% on your Log Home

Back to the index of log home articles