2 comments about Contractor's Guide to Quickbooks Pro 2004.

1. Karen Mitchell, Craig Savage, and Jim Erwin are expert contractors and an accountants who are experienced users of QuickBooks Pro. They combine their experience and expertise in Contractor's Guide To QuickBooks Pro 2004 to provide the contractor and architectural community with a step-by-step walk-through for QuickBooks Pro -- the computer software program designed to simplify and expedite routine paperwork in a construction office, ranging from keeping track of bank balances, to sending out invoices and payroll checks, to paying suppliers and subcontractors, to tracking job costs, to comparing estimated and actual costs, and a great deal more. Highly recommended for professionals in the trade, black-and-white screen shots nicely illustrate this succinct and easy-to-follow user's manual which is enhanced with an accompanying CD.



2. What did this tell me that the help function won't. A total waste of money as far as I'm concerned!!

No comments about Wall Framing (Basic Carpentry Skills).

No comments about The Cabin Builders: A True Story of Family, Accomplishment, and the Love of Nature.

1 comments about American Log Homes.

1. I like this book because it gave me several design ideas that I could use in building my home. The pictures were great and it's worth the money!

No comments about Southern Home Plans: Over 200 Home Plans for the South and Southeast.

4 comments about Great Color & Pattern Collection.

1. This is one of the most impressive presentations I've seen of beautifully designed rooms and clearly explained basic design principles. I enjoyed and learned from every minute I spent looking at this book! Especially learned quite a bit about jazzy color combinations. I'm sitting on the edge of my seat, waiting for the next volume. Such a handsome edition. It looks great on my coffee table.



2. Betsy Speert is my very favorite designer. I read EVERY word of this book. It is my Bible! After reading this book, you will know how to layer pattern on pattern. Thank you Betsy!



3. Beautiful book with lots of clever but practical ideas for chosing and combining colors and patterns.



4. I highly recommend this book. This is a must. It's easy to read and looks great on my coffee table. She makes it easy so you can't go wrong. I hope to read more books by this designer.

1 comments about A House on the Water.

1. The pictures are beautiful and the reading is both enjoyable and informative. The book profiles many homes on the water - lakes, oceans. There are both interior and exterior pictures as well as floor plans. Full of inspiration and ideas.

1 comments about Roofing Design and Practice.

1. Finally, a book about roofing design and principles that is current and up to date with todays roofing practices. This is a great guide for anyone involved in the roofing industry. Well put together and extremely informative. If you are involved in designing or the application of roofing, you should be adding this book to your reference library. They have done a terrific job of compiling information that is both useful and practical for anyone in the roofing industry.

3 comments about Cliffhangers And Hillside Homes: Views from the Treetops.

1. Rooney's Cliffhangers and Hillside Houses cling to rocky mountaintops, they hang on the hillsides; they direct our eyes outward to the "spacious plains and purple mountaintops."
   
   Those of us who have built a hillside house know that it is not an easy endeavor. How do you integrate the structure with the land and the natural features? What do you do about the need for privacy and protection from earthquake and fire? And then there are the views! Cliffhangers and Hillside Houses written by E. Ashley Rooney and approximately 30 architects and published by Schiffer (2006) presents many homes from Arkansas to California, Michigan to Maine . Their sites are as varied as their design. Architects and designers give you many tips. Once I finished dreaming my way through this book, I was ready to build another hillside home.



2. No drawings, site plans or sections, no detail or analysis, very limited environmental information, poor graphic layout. This book is possibly interesting for the layman, but certainly not for the professional.



3. CLIFFHANGERS AND HILLSIDE HOMES isn't just your ordinary photolog of famous homes, but a gathering of some fifty lovely hillside settings located across the U.S. These buildings come from some thirty notable architects and designers who describe their work and compliment the lovely photo displays with interior decoration comments. From trim detailings to borders, views, and design options, CLIFFHANGERS AND HILLSIDE HOMES is packed with eye-catching interiors, exteriors and informative comments. A top pick.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch

2 comments about Celebrating the American Home: 50 Great Houses from 50 American Architects.

1. Celebrating The American Home: 50 Great Houses From 50 American Architects by licensed architect Joanne Kellar Bouknight showcases the architectural plans for fifty homes selected by a panel of distinguished residential architects (John Connell, Duo Dickinson, Jeremiah Eck, Richard Hayes, Kerry Dietz) based on how well these houses reflect core qualities of great residential design. Profusely illustrated with 350 color photos, Celebrating The American Home is an impressively produced and organized contribution to professional, academic, and community library Architectural Studies collections.



2. The publisher of this book, The Taunton Press, has published a series of outstanding book on homes in America. Unlike many publishers, they have not concentrated on the giant mansions that few of us can afford. This book is a compilation of houses selected from about ten years of hous books. It features fifty homes, perhaps ten percent of the homes featured in all of their books, that have been selected by a panel of distinguished residential architects using a number of criteria based on both attractive design and things like livability.
   
   I'm thinking of building a new house. I live alone, kids are gone, I don't like house cleaning so want a small easy maintenance house. That's not to say that some distinctive architecture would hurt. There are some houses here that really have me thinking. One in Kansas was built to a $50,000 budget using a lot of salvaged commercial building pieces such as trusses.
   
   Then at the end of the book, three of the architects who helped select the 50 houses have short essays on residential artechitecture. This is a splendid coffee table book, but beyond that, if you've any thought of building, this is a marvelous book.