5 comments about Remodeling a Basement (Build Like A Pro).

1. I was looking for a book that would help give me the knowledge and confidence I needed to start my project. This book definately fit that bill. The book is written with just the right amount of detail to answer most, if not all, of my questions concerning finishing my basement. I am a novice when it comes to home improvements and this book left me with enough confidence to start work. I would imagine that even an experienced "do it yourself"er could learn from the information in this book. It is written in a logical order and it is easy to understand. I have read several other books on the same subject matter and they all left me with more questions than before I read them. I have not seen any other book with all the information that this book contains. It was money well spent for me. Buy it. You won't regret it.



2. I agree with the other reviewers that this book is good but ready for an update.



3. I agree with Zembian...I am very familiar with almost all of Tauntons publications. I have a subcription to FInehomebuilding, both print and online and I have lost count of the books I have from them. This book needs to be updated with the latest basement finishing techniques they promote as best and most current.
   
   I actually finished a basement (lots of complexities) in my last property with FH recommended Rigid insulation against the wall and then built the wall an inch or two off the wall with 2x4s and insulated with Fiberglass no vapor barrier which is what they recommend now, it worked wonderfully. I am now about to finish another basement in my new property and was surprised myself to see this book used outdated techniques.
   
   I will say however, there is alot more in this book to extrapolate for other aspects of a basement refinish. I would simply ignore the insulation suggestions (a critical stage), and read up on the latest techniques using rigid foam insulation mixed with fiberglass insulation.
   
   Its worth the money, especially for the novice, but just do some further digging when you look into insulating your space.



4. One of the best books I've seen on basement finishing. Great helpful tips on building soffits and finishing sheetrock. Great pictures and text written by a guy that has done hundreds of basements and offers lots of first hand knowledge.



5. This is THE best book for remodeling a basement. From the planning stages to the finishing touches, it covers everything well. The professional-tips were a very useful feature that distinguishes this book from the others on the subject. It also provides succint building codes for some sections and an estimated materials list that was dead-on accurate for me. If you only buy one book for basement remodeling... choose this one.

2 comments about Green Building A to Z: Understanding the Language of Green Building.

1. 
   I've always respected Jerry Yudelson. He is a fixture at USGBC and an active proponent of intelligent green building. Jerry has done the industry a service by writing his book.
   
   This book provides one page on each term so people new to the industry can follow conversations about sustainable architecture and urban planning. It decodes green building terminology. I recommend it for first year architect students or any old AIA dog trying to learn new tricks.
   
   It is even a good title for people who think they know it all, just to make sure they didn't miss anything.
   Sometimes we tend to know concepts so well that we can't explain the simplest of terms, A to Z saves the day.
   
   The appendix provides a great list of books and websites. For anyone wanting to shorten their learning curve (like the Regents of Higher Education perhaps?? or city commissioners??) this book is an easy one to flip through and is comprehensive enough to save hours and hours of fumbling around on Google. It is sort of like an abbreviated wikipedia of green building terms.
   
   -Jane Talkington
   PhD Student of Sustainability at OSU
   www.Trifecta-Consulting.com



2. As a national trainer and a former national board member of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), Jerry Yudelson is a nationally recognized leader and expert in green building. He summarized his many years of professional experience with green building design and renewable energy systems in "Green Building A to Z: Understanding the Language of Green Building."
   
   "Green Building A to Z: Understanding the Language of Green Building" covers the history, importance, benefits and costs of green building. It also covers some key elements of the LEED building rating system in plain English, such as water conservation, reducing energy use, solar energy, locally sourced materials, natural ventilation, zero-net-energy buildings and creating a conservation economy, etc.
   
   "Green Building A to Z: Understanding the Language of Green Building" has 240 pages packed with useful information. It is an indispensable and accurate guide for anyone who is interested in green building!
   
   Gang Chen, LEED AP, AIA
   Author of "Planting Design Illustrated"

5 comments about Junk Beautiful: Room by Room Makeovers with Junkmarket Style.

1. This is truly a fabulous book. The ideas are not only unique and innovative, but practical as well. When we must all strive to make this planet more green, what could benefit all of us more than the re-use of "junk" as beautifully displayed in this book. Besides the wonderful ideas, the photography is gorgeous, making it easy to spend several hours just browsing through the book. If one is looking for a great gift for that special person, this is the book to fill the bill. Thanks, Sue and Ki,and photographer Douglas Smith, for an exciting and creative book.



2. Great ideas that I will definitely be using in my house! They are so simple and unique - great photos - it's definitely started me on the junking trek...



3. The bulk of the book is structured in a much more mainstream way, showing some kinda suburbian translations of their look. Yes, I do understand that salvaged, re-viewed materials can have a place in ANY home ... but I miss the funkifying DIY of both the magazine and the first book. There is SOME of that here, but for my taste, nowhere near enough. I LOVED the early zany repurposing, the ways of recycling that were, ok, green (the Junk Ladies were green when green wasn't cool), sure -- but just amazingly creative. Uh, using old stock girdles for a curtain valance, with the garter tab for clipping the drapes below?! The bird-cage office organizer? The roller-skate vase? Hel-LO, Genius! I still love them and wholly endorse what they do. But I have to say, the book did disappoint me a bit. Don't BLEND, ladies! Please!



4. How do they think of these creative ways to re-use "junk"? Awesome pair of ladies!!!



5. This is a fabulous book. It gave me all kinds of inspiration for decorating my home and for using creative displays for my retail store.

5 comments about Building a Deck (Build Like A Pro).

1. I am a firm believer in the KISS method of doing things. (Keep It Simple Stupid") Every step is covered in this book so that anyone can learn from it. The "Build Like A Pro" series of books are all laid out like this one. The "Expert Tips" are great. They show you short cuts to help you do the jobs right, but in less time. This is stuff you only learn by doing the job everyday. They are trade secrets.



2. My wife and I successfully built a deck using this book 2 years ago. Planned, submitted plans to village got building permit and final inspection. It felt good to accomplish such a large task with only 2 people who are not carpenters and haven't built a deck before. The deck is around 300 sq. ft. so it is not small. The book has all the information you need to build a solid deck. It also includes information on problems you could run into and ideas for customizing the deck. We are now building a smaller 100 sq. ft. deck for the front of our house. Believe me, we could not have done this without this great book.



3. This is a good book for beginners. Wish there was a little more variety of design style. Haven't built my deck yet, but either way if you follow this books suggestions I imagine it will be a very good deck.



4. Building a Deck (Build Like A Pro)
   
   My construction experience includes home additions, house remodeling/renovation, and many indoor upgrades, but only one deck. So, when we decided to replace our own old deck with one using the latest materials, a how-to book was in order. After reviewing deck books at local stores, this one stood out as the most useful.
   
   Cons:
   
   - This book was written in 2002 and needs a major revision to incorporate current building materials. For example, the deck railing chapter talks mostly about building railings out of wood. The same is true for decking, where almost the entire focus is on wood. The author devotes a page or so to Trex and a few other materials available in 2002, but a host of newer products are now available. Today, there are a wide variety of composite planking (plastics & wood) choices; all synthetic decking such as Azek deck "boards"; PVC and perma-cast balusters; and metal-reinforced vinyl/PVC railing (stainless steel cables, aluminum, steel).
   
   - The book explains attaching the top of a staircase to the deck and methods for anchoring the stairs bottom to a concrete pad; without addressing the frost heave issue. In my area, outside concrete pads frequently frost-heave upwards up to an inch by mid-January. If the author's approach was used here, heaving would jack up the stair bottom, weakening or destroying stairs-to-deck connections. This was inexplicable since the author addresses the frost issue in other places.
   
   - There were a few techniques described that, lacking a diagram or photograph, were too ambiguous to be useful.
   
   - One book can't cover every construction scenario, but it was frustrating that it didn't cover some of the things I needed. E.g., in the section on how to flash the ledger board, the examples show houses with siding above and below the ledger. There were no examples of having siding above the ledger and a masonry wall below.
   
   - If a ledger is lag-screwed against the house sheathing (through to a rim joist), our county building code requires flashing (metal, butyl rubber, etc.) between the sheathing and the ledger. Following the book's approach of having nothing at all there wouldn't pass inspection.
   
   Pros:
   
   - The main focus is teaching the reader how to build a deck, rather than how to deal with a contractor that will build your deck.
   
   - Intelligently organized, with excellent "pro-tips", details, safety tips, building codes, diagrams, and photographs throughout.
   
   - I didn't want a deck book for the novice. Not to worry; the author uses a writing style that worked for me, but should still work for a novice. The book may be too basic for a decking contractor, but it should be helpful for anyone else.
   
   - Multiple approaches are described for most aspects of a deck project, versus having one this-is-the-way-to-do-it, approach.
   
   - Occasional mention of the applicable building code (e.g., balusters can be spaced no farther than 4" apart), with advice of how to exceed standards, when the author believes building codes are too lax.
   
   - Every aspect of a deck project is well discussed, except for financing. It starts with deck planning, and things you should consider, and progresses logically through foundations, ledgers, posts, and beams, joists, decking, railings, stairs, and custom details.
   
   Summary:
   
   This book was clearly worth its small cost, even though it didn't [adequately] cover newer materials or all construction issues. I improved several aspects of our planned deck, based on ideas in this book, and, found out most of what I needed to know in order to do the detail plans required by our county building inspections department.



5. I bought this product because one of the reviews of the other deck books said that this was the best book. My husband has learned a lot from it, and hopefully one day, we will actually have a deck in our yard :) Seriously, this is a good book, it is very thorough from beginning to end of the project. Highly recommended.

2 comments about Stonescaping Idea Book (Taunton's Idea Book Series).

1. Lots of pictures, mortar and dry-stone, a little bit of everything. Makes you look at your yard with different eyes.



2. "Walks, pathways and steps play important roles around the exterior of the home. On a practical level, they offer a safe and comfortable means of approaching your house in all seasons and weather conditions. They also serve to connect your house with its surrounding landscape, providing a logical route to frequently used areas such as garages and outbuildings, or a more meandering route through gardens..." Andrew Wormer writes.
   
   He continues to discuss other aspects of stonescape, including paths, steps, sitting places, dinning places, outdoor rooms, garden paths and floors, poolside spaces, drystone walls, mortared walls, benches, sculptures, steams and waterfalls, entryways, driveways and transitions, and borders.
   
   "Stonescaping Idea Book" has six chapters: Paths & Steps, Terraces, Patios and Garden Spaces, Walls, Landscaping Features, Pools, Ponds and Fountains, and Finishing Touches.
   
   "Stonescaping Idea Book" has 144 pages and many beautiful and inspiring interior color photos. It is a must-have for stonescape lovers!

5 comments about Little House on a Small Planet: Simple Homes, Cozy Retreats, and Energy Efficient Possibilities.

1. This is a beautiful book! I enjoy reading it in my off hours, just leafing through and reading about other people's ideas. Don't be intimidated by the word "small" in relationship to houses -- some of these small houses are at least 1000sq ft. Some are indeed small. Most of them are not occupied by more than 1-3 people. My favorites are the houses with children, since it seems more of a challenge to fit more people into a smaller space.
   
   This book also talks a lot about a low ecological footprint philosophy, but I wouldn't buy it for that. Many sweeping statements are indeed footnoted, but many others aren't. Some of the broad comments about the sociological benefits of living "small" don't quite sit with me, especially if it's touted as scientific research but not given a citation. Even with a citation I'm not fond of people saying that everyone should follow their way of life because some scientist said it was better.
   
   That said, this book is full of wonderful ideas about how to build a comfortable, happy house that matches your own personality. I like how they emphasize that you should watch yourself and see what you like about certain houses, where you like to go, what you like to look at, what makes you comfortable. Then if you're lucky enough to get the chance to design your own house, you can build something that reflects you, not the Joneses. Something that makes you comfortable and happy. It's full of great design ideas. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in houses.



2. A compilation of case studies collected over an extended period of time investigating the why's and how's of North Americans choosing to live small, live green and/or launch communal living situations. Personal and creative, some ideas are more applicable to the average person than others. Packed with floor plans, diagrams and interviews, it was denser and took longer to read than I expected, but I learned a lot. Definitely recommend it if you're looking for something new and detailed on the subject.



3. It didn't tell me anything I didn't already know and it made a lot of blanket assumptions about people who want to live in something bigger than a garden shed. Maybe it's just that I'm an introvert, but asking me to live in a pile of people in a house with minimal privacy and elbow room is a recipe for mass murder.
   
   The house shapes and building materials are diverse, but the people featured in them, in many ways, are not. There is really only one working-class family. Most of them are people with at least some degree of financial or occupational flexibility (freelancers, telecommuters, self-employed, people who could afford to have a spouse either stay home or work reduced hours; people whose jobs provided sufficient income at a part-time level); a surprising number had family or friends who could make them low-interest loans. Most of the houses are in suburban, small-town/bedroom community, semi-rural, or rural areas where housing prices are often a bit lower but where there are fewer jobs. Several of the small older houses featured cost twice as much as my parents' large house (which, yes, they had to buy to get us into a good school district and safe neighborhood. Such is life in a major metropolitan area). I was hoping this would be more city-oriented since, if we all move to the country, it will no longer be the country. The author decries the bulldozing of greenspace for cheap subdivisions, but the small-house-on-large-lot option is financially out of reach for many people and also contributes to sprawl (small planet, remember?). We can't all live on Walden Pond.
   
   I was a bit surprised that she was so quick to advocate converting the garage to house space, even after you've decluttered. Unless you can get rid of your car, how about putting the car back into the garage? Garaged cars last longer, which reduces pollution since fewer cars go to scrap.
   
   This book is not very useful unless you have the time, money, and support network to allow you a fair amount of lifestyle flexibility. If you live in a city, have a job that requires fixed hours and requires you to be on-site, and are single and comparatively low-income, and don't have an extensive and strong family/friends support network, only the more superficial suggestions apply (like getting a more energy-efficient refrigerator. Duh). It's not that I'm a McMansion fan or anything; I'm not, but this isn't a realistic solution for many of us.



4. I am a developer in Dubai and want to address the problem of the middle class that can't afford to even rent a house. I bouhgt this (and other) books to help me in undersdtanding how to go about it. Unfortunately this book is totally useless for what I need with no floor plans, and no description on how and what I can do to help. Tee discussion on reducing the space is fine but not suitable for me.



5. This book is totally well prepared. And if a person is looking to modify their life to lessen the effects of the "rat race", this book will suggest excellent options that will save a person YEARS of labor and savings and costs, which can then be devoted to ???? making a better life all around !
   HikerBOB

No comments about Equestrian Style: Home Design, Couture, and Collections from the Eclectic to the Elegant.

5 comments about The Color Scheme Bible: Inspirational Palettes for Designing Home Interiors.

1. This is a must have tool for upcoming interior designers or ID students. It is so easy to use and great color combos!! It helps take the guess work out of wondering if this color goes with that color. It would also be great for anyone redesigning or building a home--for the do-it-yourself homeowner. It also gives you suggestions for which rooms that a certain scheme would work the best. Great book...will keep it in my collection for years to come!



2. I didn't find this book to be very useful. It's got a lot of color schemes, but for some reason I didn't really like any of them. Why, I don't know, but there you have it.



3. Ever gone to a paint store, and stood there goggling at all the hundreds and hundreds of choices, totally unable to decide?
   
   Here is a book to help you.
   
   Starmer arranges the book in chapters about color. In the chapter on red, she lists everything from cranberry and magenta to antique pink and coral. Then, and this is what is so useful, under each individual color she shows two colors chosen to match the main color perfectly, plus two other minor colors to use as accents. In addition, she talks about whether the colors lean towards soothing or drama, and whether they work best in linen or silk. Talk about making things easy.



4. I love this book. It's just what I was looking for...a book that put together color schemes as opposed to the standard color rooms with white trim. More photos would have been even better.



5. I found this book to be informative and very easy to relate to. As I had purchased this title along with another great book, Your Home A Living Canvas: Create Stunning Faux Finishes & Murals with Paint - to gain as much insight into using color to cozy up my old home. Both books far exceeded my expectations, as both authors explain in detail the impact particular tones have upon a space. The warm and inviting interiors featured in these titles offer the reader much inspiration and visual reference to borrow from. Highly recommended for those wanting to discover the secrets to using vibrant color to transform the drab to the fabulous!!!!!

2 comments about Black & Decker Complete Home Repair (Black & Decker Complete Photo Guide).

1. My husband loves this book..a friend had one and he too just had to have it.



2. I have had this book for over a year now. It has helped me with small projects like changing a light fixture and unclogging the drain to painting and hanging large pictures and an LCD TV, and to remove and plane down my door that always sticks. I have never been particularly "handy" but the pictures and step by step instructions are actually really good. The only real downside is that sometimes they expect me to follow from one step to the next with minimal instruction, and I cannot based on my lack of experience. This is far and away the exception, and most times I could figure it out anyway. It has inspired me to take on bigger and more complicated projects and I refer to it often.

5 comments about Sewing 101: A Beginner's Guide to Sewing.

1. Excellent book. It is being used for a Domestic Arts class in a small Christian Classical school and works quite well.



2. This was a gift for my daughter, which was given to her with a new sewing machine. It looks like she is learning a lot from the book and enjoys reading it.



3. I really expected this book to break down the process of reading patterns, but it didnt. I still think that they look like really bad jiggsaw puzzles and I know no more than I did when I started. Oh wait, I know that I should IRON the fabric before I start working with it. THANKS!
   
   I dont know what Im going to do, I'm afraid to buy a bunch of books trying to figure out how to sew and where I live, classes are limited. I saw that there was a video, but it got some pretty poor reviews. My brand new machine is in the basement taking up space.



4. This was a great purchase to help me start making simple things with the sewing machine. I was worried that it may not be low enough to teach me everything I needed to know, but it was, and it covers enough things to get you sewing everything from clothes to pillows to drapes. It was a great buy!!!



5. I've purchased this book as it was required for a sewing class I've taken recently. It's a really good guide for beginners. It is full of pictures and there's a glossary at the end of the book. The only thing is, the pictures, the models are a bit old, so they might not inspire you enough for sewing. But don't care about that part, you'll sew the patterns you buy, anyway. :) The book is spiral-binded, which makes it easy to use when you work from it. I recommend this book for anyone who is new to sewing, this book is really helpful.