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Home-Schooled Homebuilders Win Aid

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By ZAC ANDERSON

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: July 15, 2008

NORTH PORT - Cathy and Mark Suggs' life has taken a few sharp turns, none more than when the couple decided to live off their savings and build a house with almost no prior construction experience.

It was the latest in a string of adventures that included living on a boat and leaving well-paying jobs to home school their three children.

Sometimes, the Suggses worried the unorthodox upbringing might limit their children's college opportunities.

But the path less traveled can be rewarding.

Last week, all three of the Suggs children received college scholarships from the Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice, in part because of the homebuilding experience.

Almost nothing went according to plan with the Suggs' North Port house, but it helped solidify 17-year-old identical twins Stephen and Jake's interest in engineering.

The boys, gregarious with spiky hair, wrote about the experience in their various scholarship applications, and ended up garnering more than $9,000 each, including $7,500 apiece from a special scholarship fund for future engineers.

Hope For Home Educators
Of course, it also helps that the twins and their older sister Jessica are exceptional students who began taking classes at Manatee Community College at a young age.

Stephen and Jake both have 70 hours of college credit, more than halfway to a bachelor's degree.

Cathy Suggs hopes her children's success gives home schooling parents hope.

"Home schooling can be very difficult and it's easy for people to get discouraged," she said.

Home schooling is all about the teachable moment, and the Suggs' house project had many.

Initially pegged at four months, construction took three years and 13 days.

The family dug out the home's foundation three times because of summer rain. The plumbing failed inspection twice.

Walls leaned, floors did not fit together, but through it all the family persevered, learning from their mistakes, studying how-to books and soliciting friends for help.

And the Suggs twins got practical experience with math and building materials that should come in handy as professional engineers.

"Pick a material, they've touched it and worked with it," Mark Suggs said. "They have the practical experience engineers wish they had."

Family Crammed Into RV

Stephen and Jake are grateful for the experience now, but when Mark came up with the homebuilding idea in 2003, the response was different.

"I thought he was crazy," Stephen said, laughing as his brother nodded in agreement.

The family had been living on a large tract where the children played paintball and rode go-carts.

The Suggs sold that house to pay for the new construction. They moved into an RV. Stephen and Jake slept in a small compartment. Jessica slept in the dining nook.

"We got pretty sick of each other," Jake said.

As the setbacks on their new house mounted, the family moved into a rental home and Mark took a job installing air conditioning. They continued to work on the house each weekend.

Mark refused to give up.

"It was his dream," Cathy said.

"Where do you get these dreams?" Stephen joked.

While Mark is the family dreamer, Cathy, with a master's degree in business administration and a new job with 4-H in Lee County, helps steady the family. The two met while working for the Xerox Corp. before quitting those jobs during the home-schooling adventure.

Their Christian faith and a solid marriage have made it easier to take risks, both said.

"She's going to forgive me if I screw up," Mark said.

"I know God's going to put us on the right path," Cathy said.

Mark's earlier attempts to day-trade stocks and start a family business did not pan out, but this time his perseverance paid off.

And as the house came together, so did the family.

"We really became very close as a family and the boys got a vision for their future," Cathy said. "So all in all, I think it was worth it. But I'm not sure I'd recommend anyone else try the same thing."

More than anything, the homebuilding helped teach the Suggs children that no obstacle is too big to overcome.

After building about 80 percent of their three-bedroom house, including all of the plumbing, flooring, roof work and carpentry, the family is ready for any challenge.

"I don't think they're afraid to try anything at this point," Mark said.

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