Hello all,

For years now I've had a dream of designing and building my own timber framed home. At some point in the future I hope to realise it.

Now, I have to start slowly building the skills. I'm a hobbyist woodworker, and have done a fair amount of DIY over the years, but I'm looking for advice on which training courses will be of most use.

I have looked at the guild courses, and I'm not sure which would be the best ones. I don't plan to be an architect, just to develop my design and then work with an architect to make it work. The building I hope to do myself, except for things like the SIP's. I plan to take about two years and make it my full time job (it won't happen for at least 10 years yet).

At the moment, I'm living in the US (I'm a brit) and hope to be able to take some courses over the next 2-3 years while here, as there seems to be more available than most other countries.

From your experience, which courses have people here been on that they found most useful in the long run.

Any advice or direction would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Justin.