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Thread: Thoughts on Skips class

  1. #1

    Thoughts on Skips class

    Hello

    My name is Shawn and I am from Central Ohio. I was researching Skips class to find out if it is worth the fee. I have heard some negative things from some people (clearly not here) and I was wondering what people who have actually built a home after attending Skips class thought about his class now and their homes quality.

    To explain one person told me (again this is second\third hand info) that skip's home design is very rough "round log in square hole" concept.

    However for the most part people have been very supportive of Skip, but the vast majority of those havent built a home.

    Thanks for your help

  2. #2

    Thoughts on Skips class

    Hello there!

    I've recently attended the class (Dec 04) and I think it is WELL worth it! I haven't built my first home yet, but, I have absolutely no doubts about my ability to do so after this class.

    Everything throughout the class is straight foward, common sense stuff that almost anyone can pick up.

    I filled up about 3/4 or so of a legal pad with notes, but the way the information is presented, I feel as though those notes may only be referenced a couple times because the information is so understandable. When you understand something, it's a LOT easier to remember than something you don't understand. :lol:

    Hope this helps!

    Take care 8)

  3. #3
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    But...

    Look at it this way. You have two money-back guarantees. The one that would be most applicable to you for now would be the "no questions asked" three month satisfaction guarantee. Your money would be refunded if you weren't satisfied.

    But chances are you will be completely satisfied. Take the class if you want to learn to build for yourself and not have a builder build it from a kit. Take care...

  4. #4
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    Thoughts on Skips class

    Hi, Shawn--

    My husband and I seem to be among the few people who've made it to the forum yet who went to the class long enough ago to have built. I'm hoping that some of the others will find their way here; we've contacted the Skips grads we know and encouraged them to join in.

    We attended in 2000, and the fee that was "worth it" for us was a bit less than what you'll pay should you decide to go now. However, we just were discussing this the other day, and we agreed that it WOULD be worth spending that much more for the seminar.... but we wondered if we would have KNOWN and felt CONFIDENT that it was at the time.

    My husband Jeff paid to attend the seminar twice, because a family illness prevented me from going the first time (and yes, we also weren't sure if I "needed" to go at the time.) All the way home camping for three days between Portland (where I waited with family for Jeff) and southern California, Jeff couldn't stop talking-- or lusting after the local trees. :lol:

    But you're right, Shawn... there's a difference between post-seminar enthusiasm and post-construction enthusiasm. I'll tell you, though, Shawn. We're not QUITE "post-construction" yet.... we have another couple of months if all goes well before we'll be really "done" with our home. BUT, all the Skip-specific aspects of our house have been done for quite a while now, and we're VERY VERY HAPPY with our results..... results we would NOT have had had we not "accidentally" heard about Skip's seminars from someone we met online when we were researching milled log homes.

    I'm not surprised that you're hearing second- and third-hand problems. We've heard the same. We've networked over the years quite a lot on-line, and we know several people who "know people" who had problems. But we noticed at the seminars, both times, a number of people who we said to one another we "hoped woudnl't decide to build."

    Jeff took copious notes and talked late with Skip (and I think Steve) the first time he went. Then the second time I took equally copious notes and Jeff looked at all the details he wanted clarification about from the first time around-- and again, we were the last people to leave both nights. I think that we "got" all there was to get at the seminar.

    But we saw quite a few people who were drinking coffee in the kitchen when Skip was explaining the spike pattern, for example. :roll: I even shooed a few of them back into the dining room, telling them "You might need to understand this part!"

    The process and technique the Skip teaches is actually pretty simple-- and that's part of the beauty of it, in our opinion. But you MUST pay attention to and understand the basic principles, or you won't get a good result. And unfortunately, almost all the "problems" we've seen second-hand (and we assume the same for what we've heard third-hand) were issues that a better grasp of Skip's information would likely have prevented.

    Were those people drinking coffee and chatting during an important part of the seminar, or were they just not experienced enough with basic construction principles to "get" the significance of some of the parts of the process? We can't say.

    But Skip's not a "spoon-feeder", and my husband and I agree that if one didn't have a reasonable amount of common sense and general mechanical/physical/analytical skill, the seminar might not be right for them. We've often joked about the times that Skip told us, basically, what the end result needed to be and "trusted" students to find (or maybe assumed that we could figure out) the best way in THEIR SITUATION to get to that result.

    For us, that worked great. We had a lot of "situations" we had to improvise, adapt and overcome... but we did, and we think that our home is really wonderful. And WE COULD NOT HAVE DONE THIS-- wouldn't even have known it was what we wanted-- IF WE'D NOT GONE TO THE SEMINAR.

    I will not say that it's the perfect seminar for everyone. As I said, there were only a handful of people we met at the one I went to who we felt were REALLY "up" to building anything elaborate or permanent-- and we've not heard from a single one of even THOSE people to say that they have.

    But, now that we're more than 3 1/2 years into building a big, on-grid, earthquake-approved, county-stamped one-of-a-kind home that people's first reaction to tends to be either "Oh, my god..." or something else that starts with "holy" :wink: , we feel that we got a bargain in what WE learned at Skip's. And we feel a sincere sense of gratitude to him and all the guys who are continuing his work with and for him.... for teaching us how to build that home that we always wanted, but hadn't been able to put our finger on the WAY to get.

    Good luck to you, whatever you decide. :D

    Sara

  5. #5

    Thoughts on Skips class

    I would generally second Sara's remarks, although I am not in the same position as she is. I have not even begun to build.

    I'll be honest with you, and hope that I don't offend Steve, Ellsworth or anyone else at the Association. One of the claims I saw on the website was that the seminar will teach those who attend it "everything [they] need to know to build a log home." Well, in my case at least, that's just not true.

    I'm completely inexperienced when it comes to basic construction or even home repairs. There's a great deal I need to know and learn before I'm going to be able to build my home. What the seminar *did* do is light a fire under me. It motivated me more than I can ever say. It also gave me the sense that I *can* do this. I have no doubts that it's going to be a lot of work, but I also know it'll get done.

    The seminar was invaluable in teaching me conceptually how a log home is properly built. It taught me enough that I now know what I don't yet know or understand. It gave me a map, as it were, to see what skills I need to acquire to build my house the way I want it built. I have a lineup of classes that I plan to take as soon as I return to the States, to learn how to do lots of the steps in building a log home. But here's the thing - learning all those individual skills would not have given me the general sense of what I could do with them. Most likely, acquiring individual skills in pouring cement, stick framing, hanging wallpaper, etc. would not have translated into an overarching vision and design for what I want as an end product of all my labor.

    Other members take the class with a lot more experience under their belts. But whether you're experienced or not, the class is a fantastic resource for anyone thinking about buying or building a log home.

    Take the class. You have nothing to lose and a great deal to gain.


    Kate

  6. #6

    Thoughts on Skips class

    Thanks for all the responses so far (please keep them coming)

    One of the things that makes the seminar a little disconserting to an outsider is the way the site promotes it. I dont mean any disrespect but frankly when one reads the site you come away with the feeling that this is yet another scam. The reason why is that almost nowhere on the site are any negative or passive comments about the seminar. I have no doubt that building your own house with little or no experience (no matter how good the seminar is) will have major problems and concerns. And the site kind of makes it sound (at least in its wording anyway) that anyone can do it and experience isnt needed. Perhaps the site owners should add a section on the negative sections of using skips method. Nothing is perfict (that doesnt mean its bad) and highlighting some of what can go wrong with poor decision making or bad information can help make the reader understand that its not just a puffy site ment to extoll the seminar but a true assocation dedicated to teaching building and most of all encouraging others to try something bold.

    Personally I feel that from what I have heard it sounds good but I would still love to hear from others who have built to hear their experience. I hope I didnt offend, but in todays world you have to be so carefull with what you believe and read.

  7. #7

    Thoughts on Skips class

    I don't think anyone here would criticize you for being skeptical - most people would applaud it in this day and age, especially since one of Skip's goals is to educate people about the "scams" in the log home building industry.

    I hope my $.02 is welcome, even though I haven't built yet.

    I took the class a little over a year ago. the only complaint I heard during the entire class were from a couple of people who didn't like some of the conversational tangents we took into personal freedom and governmental interference. And that's a valid opinion, but it's not like it didn't tie in directly to the topic of the course, which is how to build a log home and how it can help you to be "free" in a variety of ways. And when those people spoke up, we got right back to the nuts and bolts of building, and continued the other topics after class.

    I enjoyed every aspect of the class; I learned everything I would need to know to build my own home, and I also gained great resources to answer any questions I might come up with later - you're not kicked out the door when you're done with the class, you gain friends and contacts who will help you in the future. It was a great experience, one that I would be happy with even if I never build my own log home.

    But I'm gonna. ;)

    Take care!
    -Jeff in NH

    P.S. - Everyone I've met involved in running the association has been completely honest. They're not in it to get rich - they can build log homes and sell them for that. They're in it because they love it, and they want to help people be free (economically and in other ways, as you choose). If they say they'll refund your money if you're not happy, they mean it. It's as simple as that.

  8. #8

    Thoughts on Skips class

    I would agree, I have also been in contact with chuck through the sites email address and he has answered a lot of questions some of which were pretty tough and direct.


    So far I am impressed with the way my questions have been answered and the people associated with the seminar.

  9. #9
    LHBA Member
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    Thoughts on Skips class

    Jeff,

    I would like to second your comments about the Association folks. When we got back and started talking to family about what we learned, I think they all thought maybe we'd been scammed and might end up in real trouble.

    But what we were taught makes really good sense, and our family has come around.... even the structural engineer we had to hire to okay our plans (because we live right ON the San Andreas Fault) was impressed when we got him up-to-speed on the whys and wherefores of the philosophy.

    In our experience, the guys in the Association have a really high level of patience for "dumb" and not-so-dumb questions. They WANT you to have the great results that Skip and they and others (and we) have had... and they will help you get to that point if they can. One reason we've been so interested in the Association starting up an on-line forum or e-list is because that would make it that much easier to get and SHARE the follow-up information that really helps a project come together even better.

    When we were part-way through our construction, we met another couple, the Weekses, who were getting ready to start building their Skip-style house 2000 miles away. We hit it off as friends, and we started a correspondence that brought us eventually to a trip to their house to visit and help them with construction last summer.

    I think that the whole basis of the seminar is THAT.... Skip and company knew a great way to do something successfully and economically, and they shared it with us. And we learned a lot by our mistakes and successes in our own project, and we've tried to share that with other like-minded folks we meet. Yes, they charge for the seminar, but I can't see any other way that could work. But for the quality of the information in the first place, and the support available afterwards, we never got such a good value for our money.

    Sorry to always be so long-winded.
    Sara :D

  10. #10

    Thoughts on Skips class

    Hey folks,

    These are some very good comments so far! No need to worry about offending anyone here. We can take it. ;)

    Have you seen Larry Kapin's log home? His home was a log home of the month a few months ago. Larry said he had never built anything before his log home - he just took the class and went and built it. We asked Larry what the most important thing was that he learned at the class and (I'm paraphrasing here) he said "Skip taught us to figure things out when we ran into problems, so we didn't need to call him (or anyone else) every time we ran into something we didn't know how to do." I find it interesting that Sara said almost the same thing about building her home. ;)

    I think many people forget that we do not "sell" a "class". We have a lifetime membership in an association. And after the initial membership, everything is free. Access to instructors, the monthly newsletter, member's meetings, free hands-on practice (by working on another member's log home project), and now the online forum.

    Back in the old days all of our members were local, so it was easy to attend a meeting and get a refresher on anything that you forgot or needed help with. Today most of our members are from out of state (or country) so for the past year we've been trying to come up with a way to build community between members from all over the world. This forum should go a long way to bridge the gaps created by physical distance.

    The forum is only a few days old and we're already seeing great exchanges of information between the members. Great job everyone -- please keep up the good work. :)

    Steve

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