5 comments about Handyman's Handbook : The Complete Guide to Starting and Running a Successful Business.

1. This book touches on quite a number of topics you will need to consider should you decide to undertake incorporating "handymanism" into your life as a vocation or part time avocation. It does not delve too deeply into any of the topics, but gives you a good starting point from which you can decide whether further investigation into that topic is warranted for your interests. I do have a few disappointments in the book. Two areas not touched upon are insurance and licensure, and how/where to seek advice or to purchase them. I think additional chapters covering each item would be a significant improvement to the book. Another, albeit minor, omission in my opinion is the lack of a couple of suggested layout sketches for arrangement of tools/materials in a generic van and/or pickup.
   Overall, I found the book to be a good place to start and it did provoke questions for additional consideration in my own mind which I would want to address before embarking on this new career path.



2. This book will not help you start a handyman business. It is all about the authors ramblings concerning his work clothes, tools, hardware and not at all about how to run the business. Anyone interested in running a handyman company will already know the technical side, and really what the author even provides there is useless. The business side is why I bought the book and it is not there.



3. Anyone who is starting a handyman business and doesn't already know the elementary information provided in this book is NOT smart enough to own and operate their own business.
   There is a much better book out there geared towards contractors, but the information is much more useful. This book is a waste of money.



4. Not very informative for anybody that has any handyman skills to begin with. Would be ok for somebody that has no skills whatsoever. Has nothing to do with "Starting and Running a Successful Business". I might give it to my kids because that is all it is really is good for. Very disappointed!



5. If you think you are going to run a contracting business with no overhead forget it.Go ahead and try and find jobs without advertising.Hmm why without advertising.Because if you try and advertise ,and don't have a contractors license and liability insurance.All those people who do have them and pay thousands a year for the privilege will be turning you in so fast your nail gun will spin.Unless you live in the Boonies ,most Counties and Towns require rafts of paper work and other license, before you can pull a nail in someone's home.The days of Gommer the fixit man are over because we live in such a litigious society,liability insurance is a must and it costs thousands.There is really no way to start a contracting business on the cheap and run it in a professional manner.this seems to be the case with most of these start your own contracting or repair business books out there.They forget about or gloss over the whole liability issue, like it's no big deal.You damage someone's home or property and you will see what a big deal it becomes.I am not a contractor ,I have a small 3 bay auto repair shop , and my liability runs almost 20 thousand a year.That's quite a big bite for a guy just starting out.Even if you stay away from large jobs,say a customer wants you to install a new window ,in most towns that would require a contractors license,check it out well before you just jump in.It takes a lot more then just the tools and the knowledge of how to use them to run a home improvement business.

2 comments about Building A Fireplace: Step-by-step Instructions For Contemporary To Classic Styles.

1. If you are an amatur builder and want to size your new firplace, this is not the book for you. The book focuses on the building steps from contractor's or builder's point of view and not designer's point view. You will find many good ideas on custom fireplace construction. However, you will not find how to size your fire chamber, the geometry of the fire chamber, the relationship between the fire chamber and the flue size or chimney hight, and many other specific data necessary for designing the fireplace.



2. Good book for learning to construct your own fireplace with how to instructions

2 comments about The National Park Architecture Sourcebook.

1. The book is an incredible feat of covering the national park historical architecture. The writing is excellent and filled with facts and observations. It helped me to enjoy the parks in an informative way. I packed it along on trips this summer and recommend it as a great resource.



2. We purchased this book for the Mesa Verde National Park Library as Mesa Verde's historic headquarters and CCC buildings are featured. The historic building were discussed, but no pictures were included of the buildings. Instead, pictures of the ancestral puebloan dwellings were shown and they were terribly mislabeled. A few of the other parks I was familiar with looked like they had accurate information, but I cannot speak for everything else.

4 comments about Barns: Living in Converted and Reinvented Spaces.

1. If you have an old barn and want to get some ideas and inspiration for making a lovely living space without sacrificing the integrity and charm of the original, this book is not for you. I wish I had seen the review that appears before mine before I bought it. Soulless says it all. And most of the barns pictured are in Europe, to boot, except for one in Charlottesville that is so over the top, I thought I was looking at a cardboard model at first. This would be a great book if you have an airplane hangar you want to convert, but spare the barns.



2. Lovely pictures of completely souless houses. Almost without fail, the buildings depicted started as gorgeous rustic barns, were stripped of every bit of character (with the exception of some beam-work), and populated with cold modern furniture. There is no warmth, character, coziness, or sense of home in any of them. They are carefully sanitized, and devoid of any sense of history. I can assure you that if I get to do a barn conversion, it would look nothing like any of the barns in this book. This book is inspirational--it tells me what NOT to do.



3. Excellent - very informative but not too 'interior designed'!
   My son is doing up an old house in Michigan and together we found some very good and sensible ideas to think about.



4. Good book overall if your intentions are to learn what architects and builders have done to old barns in converting them into modern and contemporary homes. Or a modern day interpretation of old barn design using todays style and building practices. Thankfully for most of the barn renovations mentioned, the authors did a good job in marrying the fine attributes that the old buildings possess with the modern styles and comforts that is required to make them habitable. All the pictures are exquisite, sharp and in good detail. I found the book an excellent idea source for my own pending barn renovation.

4 comments about Magnificent Italian Villas and Palaces.

1. This book shows large, ornate villas and palaces. It has some great interior and exterior pictures and good text. It is an excellent book if that is what you want. I wish that it had some floor plans and more photographs of the gardens. I really wanted something with all sizes of villas with some floor plans as well as photos. Sometimes, there is no substitute for thumbing through a book before you buy it to see what you are getting.



2. This book has a fabulous collection of Villas in Italy. The photography is wonderful.



3. Great Pictures. If you really enjoy old world architect, you'll love this book.



4. Shakespeare's words define the extraordinary structures in this elegant Rizzoli book MAGNIFICENT ITALIAN VILLAS AND PALACES. This is one of those massive tomes to spread on the table or before a nightlight fire and enter another far more beautiful time. Massimo Listri is the gifted photographer who captured the exteriors, landscapes, interiors and art of these places of wonder throughout Italy. With an informative and entertaining text by Cesare Cunaccia, who in addition to being an architectural historian is a frequent contributor to Architectural Digest, this sampler of some of the various interesting villas and palaces found in Italy is one of the finest books of its kind.
   
   The sights and environments of the areas in which these estates exist are captured as aperitifs for the actual examination of each building. The two creators of this book spread their travel from the Villa Borghese in Rome to the Doge's Palace in Venice, including Tuscany for the Medici Villas and the Pitti Palace in Florence and the stops in Siena, to Lombardy (Lake Como and Lake Garda) and Naples, and even Sicily. Each structure is examined for its architectural details, its history, its gardens, and art treasures.
   
   Rarely has a book on architecture felt so comfortable to read and view. The flow is a fine mix between word and image and both Cunacci and Listri are exemplary in their presentation. A magnificent coffee table volume, this. 'We are such stuff as dreams are made on...' Grady Harp, November 05

1 comments about Luxury Hotels Golf Resorts (Luxury Hotels).

1. This is one of a series of books published by teNeues that are really idea books on how the best of things are being designed right now. The hotels described here are not the normal Motel 6's in either amenities, or (I suspect) room rate. They range across the world from Europe to Asia, South Africa, and both North and South America.
   
   Golf is featured at all of these places, but the non-golfer would not find himself out of place visiting any of them. They all have every feature you could possibly expect of a Luxury Hotel. These hotels offer a lot more than simply a place to put ones head down for the night.
   
   The book is of large format, profusely illustrated with color photographs and printed using a very high quality printing process on very good paper. Anyone looking to design such a hotel, or even looking for a high end business entertaining location can find a lot of good inspiration in this book.

2 comments about The American Family Farm (Motorbooks Classic).

1. I think the book was wonderful and its so sad, that, probably in a hundred more years the only place you will see a farm will be in the Smithsonian.
   
   I have farmed a small farm of 3oo acres and the pictures brought back wonderful memories of hard work and dedication to the soil. The layout of the book is great and just so real you could touch it. A very good read for anyone who loves the outdoors and good honest labor



2. I must admit, The American Family Farm is one great book on farm memories and agricultural science. I only bought it because I have a big inteerest in farming, and if you do, this a book that you won't be able to put down!

2 comments about Marshall Field's (A Building Book).

1. This book is a must have for all who miss Chicago's one and only Marshall Field's, and or hate Macy's.



2. This is a SMALL book with SMALL print. I should have paid closer attention when I ordered it. I wish there had been more vintage pictures. Of course, I love to read anything about the late great Marshall Fields department store of which I have so many happy memories from childhood. There will never be anything else like it and I'm glad I can remember it so well. Shame on Macy's!!

5 comments about Be Your Own House Contractor: Save 25% without Lifting a Hammer.

1. Heads Up! The book has been updated. The 5th edition just released in April of 2006 has been fully updated and includes Carl Heldmann's new Web site, where readers can get loan information, daily updates on interest rates, and cost estimate worksheets for planning and tracking building expenses. Other new features include new chapters on renovating and restoring an older house and a Spanish glossary of common building terms.



2. Very little to work with here. Covers everything, but with little detail. For instance, there are only six pages in the book on sub-contractors. Search a little more and you can find a different resource that will be much more detail oriented.



3. I read the book since I am building a house soon. The book gave very little useful information. I have been doing my homework on building a home and consider myself above average home building knowledge, but nothing I have learned came from this book. I took the book on vacation this summer to read at the beach and I finished it in a day. If you have some type of home building knowledge, you do not need this book. I can NOT think of ANYTHING positive to say. I wish I had another book to read at the beach. WASTE OF TIME.



4. The author of the book dwells on materials and methods that are commonly used only in the southeastern part of the country, where he is from. (He actually recommends heat pumps, which are not a very good bet in the colder parts of the country, he also has very little to say about basements, and seems to discourage them as well). I read the whole book, and I do not feel well prepared to be my own contractor. The author never discusses issues like panelized and modular homes, and that could be a way to simplify construction and save money.



5. The fellow who "knocks" this book doesn't know what he is talking about. The fact is...when you add up all of the fluff in the construction of a home, and if you have reasonable intelligence and if you plan well, before you break ground, you can in fact save 25%-30% on the cost of a new home.And, that does not include the 5-6% for the realtor and the 2-3% for the mortgage broker, etc. If you purchase a component system, chances are you will pay far too much for the home, despite the claims to the contrary. I have been involved in the construction of over 3000 homes in the past 4 years. This is truly the best kept secret in America for the person who wants to do a bit of work, for a very big pay day, down the road. That being said...it ain't for the dummy who wants to make decisions as he or she goes along , once the project is underway. Make your plans...do your homework and let 'er rip.

   Real estate has always hidden a multitude of sins, due to leverage and inflation. Wouldn't you rather start with an extra 25% in your pocket, right out of the gate?

5 comments about East Meets West: Global Design for Contemporary Interiors.

1. Ms Hoppen does an excellent job both explaining and demonstrating her design philosophy in this very readable, very well illustrated book. She discusses origins of various influences and then provides examples of the results of the influences. She will use colors, shapes or textures of Eastern origin and then demonstrate her use of them in contemporary settings. This reader found this very heplful because it showed Ms Hoppen's entire process. If one is interested in absorbing some of Ms Hoppen's design philosophy, this is an excellent book with which to start.



2. Honestly, when does one come across a designer who has that kind of depth and genious to "see" in nature so vividly, imagine how that could be recreated in interiors and indeed implement it in such warm, balanced and welcoming environments, with such evident knowledge and experience in form, color and structure? You'll keep coming back to this book.



3. I have always felt a strong pull toward eastern/Asian style of decorating and have found Ms. Hoppen's book inspiring.

   I discovered Ms. Hoppen's work when I came across a show about her decorating/design methods on the Style Channel. During the hour long show, she took the viewers on a tour of her London home, which she renovated using her style elements (East Meets West). I fell in love with her simple and subtle use of color, texture and lighting. I went out and purchased her book immediately.

   Her photos are wonderful, they follow the text fabulously. Her style is simple and uncluttered, which creates a very comfortable and serene atmosphere that I had been trying to achieve in my own home.

   I highly recommend this book.




4. This book is quite interesting. It shows how the designs of the East can blend harmoniously with the designs of the west. It does not only show the famous Zen design of the Japanese but shows much of the deep colors of Indian and Chinese design. For someone who has no formal background in designing, this book suggests the balance of colors that is simply shown in nature--which the author herself has been inspired with. The designers English design influence though has been displayed much in her style- a little bit too elitist. But indeed, a great book to keep for reference!



5. Everything about this book is inspiring. The text is excellent and the photographs explain and illustrate Ms. Hoppen's methods beautifully. Her use of color is new to me and incredibly helpful. The pictures, which show her use of Eastern influences in Western rooms, are stimulating, yet whether simple or complex they illustrate a system of decoration that creates the background for a blissful, peaceful way of life. This book has altogether changed my philosophy about household design.