No comments about How to Build Wooden Gates and Picket Fences: 100 Classic Designs.

3 comments about Inviting Porches: 210 Home Plans With Perfect Porches.

1. This book has a beautiful front cover and several pages of color photos. However, the vast majority of the book is comprised of house plans, many of which that do not have porches other than small stoops. These house plans contain no specific reference to porches, there are no individual porch plans, drawings or elevations. This is a very disappointing book that utterly fails to live up to it's cover....



2. I picked this book up when I was looking for a house plan that included porches (which the first reviewer should have known if they'd read the title!). I'd looked through so many house plan books and found the perfect plan in this book! It's great! Lots of color pictures and beautiful house plans. If you're looking for something different, this book is for you.



3. This is not a book about porches, but rather a house plans book. You've seen those "books" in the magazine racks at your favorite mega-chain bookstore: a softcover book of house plans. Sure, all the house plans have porches - in one form or another - but you will not learn anything about porches in this book.

4 comments about Great Garages, Sheds & Outdoor Buildings: 145 Projects You Can Build.

1. This book offers a very extraordinary group of ideas in the form of sketches, however that is as far as you will get with the 101 projects you can build yourself. Each project has a plan number that requires the speculative do-it-yourselfer to spend 20 to 85 dollars on a blueprint that most profesional builders won't even touch. In summary, the plans are too complicated for the weekend warrior, and the materials needed to build these elaberate structures will blow any do-it-your-selfers budget. You can get some good ideas from this book, but that is it.



2. if you're looking for the basic garage or outbuilding book this is not it....too big , too contemporary.... also it should be called the garage plan sourcebook. as there are no actual plans...just sources



3. This book gives you a large variety of designs and styles to consider. It was just what we were looking for! We were able to combine a couple of ideas to build the perfect garage/guest house! Our builder had no problem just using the pictures and diagrams from the book. If you're a do-it-yourselfer, you can order the plans. (Everyone in the neighborhood compliments our new guest house/garage!



4. This book is basically a list of plans for sale by the Hanley Wood Company. Most of the designs look rather dated to me, I would guess many of these were designed in the 1960's and 70's. I didn't find any particularly interesting or useful ideas here, most designs were either very simple or much too ornate & contrived for my taste. It's rather misleading to call this a "book" and say it was "wriitten by" and author, it is really more of a large sales brochure dressed up as a paperback book.

1 comments about Conservatory Style: Garden Rooms, Glasshouses, and Sunrooms.

1. The pictures gave me many ideas on how to approach the patio/sun room that we are having constructed. Hopefully we will be able to enjoy this new area in the spring of 2008.

1 comments about Building & Maintaining Docks: How to Design, Build, Install & Care for Residential Docks.

1. As a Landscape Architect I found the book helpful and very simple to use and browse through. It is a good resource. It would be helpful to have some construction sections or details illustrating construction techniques. Also having a resource guide in the back for manufacturers and supplies would be useful.

No comments about Outdoor Stonework: The Timeless, Practical, and Aesthetic Value of Stone.

1 comments about Patio Roofs & Gazebos.

1. This book was good for simple, basic overheads for patios and/or decks. It gave some limited plans and recommendations for lumber. It also listed a variety of roofing materials but was somewhat unspecific on the pros and cons of each.
   We liked what the book did offer, but finished it feeling rather unsatisfied.

No comments about 1001 Ideas for Decks (1001 Ideas).

3 comments about Design Ideas for Decks (Design Ideas).

1. First let me make it clear that this is not a book about building decks. "Design Ideas for Decks" is a sourcebook for exactly what it states - designs. And the design ideas are plentiful and beautiful. Unique layouts, multi-level decks, accents to give aesthetic beauty, everything about design is covered in the book. Just looking through it once gave me several ideas for my backyard deck that I would not have thought of but will add a lot of character to the deck and make it the functional deck that I want. "Design Ideas for Decks" is a highly recommended resource for ideas for your new deck or to remodel your current one to make it more functional or aesthetically pleasing.



2. First the not-so-good: I made a mistake when I bought this book. I was looking for a book on how to design a deck. The description says that the book includes "an easy-to-follow design guide." Well, I read the book from cover to cover, and I haven't found that guide. What I have found are photos of decks, and descriptions of their features. That's it.
   
   Now for the good: the photos are lavish, beautiful, and brimming with information. They are truly inspiring. In addition, they are beautifully printed on a nice, heavy paper.
   
   I'll be keeping the book, but in the meantime still searching for a good book on deck design that is actually more of a how-to.



3. This is good for introducing people to different designs and different types of materials. It is not a how to do it book

2 comments about Fences, Walls & Gates.

1. This book was more or less a waster of money for me. It had some (really only a few) good pictures of wooden fences and gates that I was looking for, and the rest were more artsy metal and masonry. The instructions on building were for very simple fences and gates, which I already knew and found for free on the internet. I was really looking for pictures or instructions on building an outstanding fence and gate.



2. Has a variety of creative ideas; BEAUTIFUL photos. About half is pictures of fences of different materials, and combinations of materials, often including other landscaping/hardscaping ideas and concepts, with narratives. The other half is Building Basics, which includes the basics of building different types of fences (wood; masonary; ETC) and gates. Altho the instructions have some detail, they are basic. If you are a total novice (like me), you'll probably need some additional help. Another part of the second section is about available materials: lumber; metal and vinyl fencing; fasteners; blocks, bricks, and stone; gate material and hardware. I got a lot of information and ideas from this book and would recommend this book to others.