4 comments about Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities.

1. A broad (though not particularly deep) guide to the public health problems associated with sprawl, including: (1) the air pollution caused by sprawl-induced auto traffic, (2) the health consequences of the reduction in walking caused by automobile dependency, (3) injuries and deaths from auto traffic, (4) water quality problems associated with suburban development, (5) the alleged intangible costs of automobile dependency (e.g. driving-induced stress, the isolation of nondrivers). None of these issues are addressed in enormous detail; for example, the book occasionally mentions pro-sprawl counterarguments, but does not fully address them. But then again, each of these topics could probably justify a separate book.



2. The costs of sprawl are enormous. This book describes the costs in terms of many different types of public health measurements. If you haven 't thought about sprawl, this is a good place to start. It is chilling to think about how many physical, emotional, psychological and medical ramifications there are to the US automobile lifestyle. The price to degradation of the planet was not discussed in depth but that too would make you think about our legacy of our lifestyle to the quality of our planet for future generations. I am encouraged that the topic is being developed. The automobile lifestyle is addictive and to change it will require a paradigm shift. The shift starts with organized discussions and lucidly presented data. This book is excellent on both accounts.



3. The Europeans are way ahead of our efforts to consider health issues in the urban planning process. This book provides a history and direction to address urban sprawl and understand well the health implications of reckless or solely market-driven city planning. After all, no built community will have sustainability, if its populations are at risk for chronic and acute illness.
   
   Presented are the ingredients to make our cities safer and livable. This is a must read for City Planners, County officials, and anyone interested in cleaning up our urban communities with an eye toward social equity and environmental justice. MJY



4. This book provides an excellent overview of the science linking sprawl and public health that will be useful to both public health professionals less familiar with planning and planners less familiar with public health. Dr. Frumkin's message is clear: urban sprawl is having a detrimental impact on many aspects of public health. However, his tone remains objective and hence more useful. Moreover, the references alone make the book a very valuable text for all professionals working in this area.

No comments about Why There's Antifreeze in Your Toothpaste: The Chemistry of Household Ingredients.

5 comments about The Home Owner's Journal, Fifth Edition.

1. I bought an older edition of this book for my then five year old home a few years ago and kicked myself that I had not purchased it sooner. I was determined not to make that mistake again, so when my family decided to become cabin owners the first thing I did was order the lastest edition. I am very glad that I did. It has been very helpful.



2. The hardest part to using this reminder (fill-in the pages book) is taking the time to write down what you did to your house. Be it painting-- the kitchen or replacing the waterheater. The book is user-friendly and the spiral binding allows to to lay flatt to easily write in. Virually all rooms, appliances, etc. are listed on separate pages. Referring back to finding an event is just thumbing thru the pages to the room,etc.
   Wall coverings; bedroom 1,2,3; measurements, cleaned by, brand, date purchased, costs,etc. are all things asked of you.



3. This is more of a decorating book if you ask me. It gives you spaces to put what dimension e/thing in your house is. It is not a bad book, but it is not what I thought it was. I was looking for a book to store info on when the last time I cleaned the air ducts in the house, etc...stuff like that. Maybe I am looking more for a maitenence book. This book would be useful in many situations, but as a home journal it's not what i thought it was.



4. I bought this when I purchased my first home. It's easy to use and has lots of sections where you can keep notes. It is divided up into a variety of sections like Living Room, Bedroom (1,2,3,4,5), Bathroom, Hallway, Roof, etc. I keep things in it like dates of yearly service calls, paint swatches, companies I've used, etc. It's a terrific tool and also makes a great gift.



5. I buy these and give them to all my home buyer's at closings. It is a great book and you can record virtually everything about your home in it. My home rehabbers love it because they then have something to hand to the new homeowners showing everything they have done to the property and where to find replacements and warranties.

2 comments about Graphic Guide to Site Construction: Over 325 Details for Builders and Designers.

1. i am so thankful to the authors of this book! they explained everything with such clarity and attention to detail. i am recommending this book to a lot of fellow landscape designers. this book has clear and well drawn details on a lot of landcape structures. it is far far better than a lot of text books on the same subject, and it's worth ten times more than its price.



2. What an excellent little book! As a landscape designer (who provides the aethetic overview for the contractor to install), this book has proven extremely helpful in answering my never-ending questions, "how will ____ be built?" As such, it is invaluable in the design process as well.
   
   Aimed at residential design, every hardscape element I need is explained and illustrated in a professional, thorough, easy-to-understand way. Examples of what's covered: retaining walls, steps, drainage, railings, irrigation, lighting, septic systems, paving systems, deck structures, built-in fireplaces, built-in kitchens, water, pools, spas....etc, etc, etc.
   Of the more complicated things (built-in kitchens, swimming pools), the authors kept the details simple, describing the overall concepts, so that a designer can show them, but a skilled contractor would need to fill in. Of the things a do-it-yourselfer can do (e.g. fences, simple paving), there is a more thorough covering.
   
   This book is NOT among the comprehensive construction standards references that must (by necessity of their content) be priced in the $100 to $200 range. This one is focused and kept to-the-point as a quick but thorough reference for all manner of outdoor construction used in residential landscapes.
   
   For landscapers, landscape designers, homeowners, artists--anyone needing professional construction information edited down to the essentials-- I highly recommend this book!

3 comments about The Complete Guide to Reducing Energy Costs (Consumer Reports: You Need to Know).

1. This book covers the basics of what consumers need to know to reduce their utility bills and reduce their consumption of Greenhouse Gases. The one section that is outdated refers to heating your house using cord wood. Please do not cut down trees and burn them to heat your house! Trees are the one carbon-capture technology that actually exists, everything else is smoke-and-mirrors. We need trees to help clean up the mess we are making of the environment!



2. This is an excellent and complete overview to the improvements you can make in your home to make it more comfortable and more energy efficient. By following it's advice, you can improve your efficiency by up to 30% - depending on the age and condition your home is - I've personally experienced 27% savings on a 2800 sq ft home built in 1989. This has been a hobby and passion of mine for over a year, I've used various resources on the Internet. This one book covers all the topics I've discovered elsewhere, educates the issues well, instructs how to make the efficiency changes based on expert experience, all in a layman's language that's easy to understand and follow. I wish they would have published it a year ago - would have saved me significant amount of time that I've spent researching and learning the hard way.



3. This is a great comprehensive guide. But if you're already energy conscious, there's not much new in this publication. For the general homeowner, it's definitely a must-have. Here are the most significant facts: new window replacements don't usually pay for themselves; CFL bulbs save a ton of energy and reduce carbon emissions at a low cost; front load washers save water but not much energy; your home loses energy through electrical outlets and switches; central cooling and heating is most efficient (don't use space heaters); and upgrading your central a/c and heater may be economical.

5 comments about The Natural Plaster Book: Earth, Lime, and Gypsum Plasters for Natural Homes (Natural Building Series).

1. This book was late in coming, but the wait was well worth it! There's nothing like this book on the market today...not even close!

   I especially like how thorough this book is. I really appreciated the clear and detailed explanations of all aspects of plastering -- from the design of homes (so they will be suitable for natural plasters) to wall preparation to testing, mixing, and applying plasters.

   The authors skillfully walk the reader through all of the steps required to plaster a natural home, anticipating mistakes you might make -- and telling you how to avoid them. Although the book focuses on plastering strawbale buildings, there's lots of good advice for plastering numerous other natural homes.

   This book attempts to develop a deep understanding of plasters. To do so, the authors begin by describing the components of plasters -- and what each one does. Knowing that subsoils are different at each building site, the authors give general guidelines for making plasters. They tell you how to test your soils and potential plaster mixes. No, you won't find recipes for plasters...that would be fruitless due to the variability of subsoils. But you will find some examples you can start with and good, solid explanations of the steps you have to take to make plasters using the dirt you have at your site!

   I was also very impressed by the extensive coverage of finish plasters and alises as well as the detailed resource guide and the excellent photos and drawings, although some were a bit small. Sometimes the text seemed a bit repetitive, but in retrospect that helped me memorize the details.




2. Is 'natural plaster home' a euphemism for 'mud hut'?
   
   The following gives a sense of the mood conveyed by the authors:
   
   "Mud Plasters are fun to work with!
   
   Earthen plasters are easy to work with and fun to mix and apply. 'Once you've put your hands in that mud mix you don't feel like doing any other type of plaster'... For adults, working with earthen plaster seems like kid's play, for children it is play!"
   
   At one point, we are advised that 'natural plasters' are low energy building material. The energy required can be measured in terms of granola bars.
   
   I'm sorry: work is work. But, this curious enthusiasm for returning to nature is just a frill. The book has a lot of useful details on foundations, walls, and finish materials. It never gets past the introductory level, but all the key points are covered. Additionally, there is good coverage of design issues, with particular emphasis on avoiding water damage. Finishing walls is given 3 chapters: natural finishes, lime finishes, and gypsum finishes.
   
   I was a bit disappointed in the lack of interest in power-tools, but getting one's hands muddy seems like too much fun to the authors. Additionally, more details on chemistry would have been helpful. At a certain level, I suspect this book is a good introductory lesson for volunteers assembling at a worksite with at least one master builder on hand. Working with mud may be fun, but it takes a large crew to get the whole house, barn or commune done in a single building season.



3. Not worth the money as a technical reference or how-to book. Otherwise a pleasant read with some inpired pics and a very general overview of the process. Speaks, for the most part, to strawbale contruction as if strawbales are some naturally occurring thing harvested from the wild when are in fact a product of energy intensive industrial agriculture. Fails to provide important technical details such as estimating for coverage, application on masonry, frame and other 'natural' structures, guidelines for plaster preparation. If you already have building experience and skills there are far better reference books available to actually base work upon.



4. In reading this book you'll find descriptions of the various types of building materials, not just straw bales, these plasters are used on (it is not really a build yourself a house book) and a pretty good overview of the types of plasters themselves.
   I'm not done reading it but don't find enough information to consider it a complete how to guide, more of a starter book. You get some recipes for pigments/ plasters but not much detail about applying the stuff. I've found nothing about measuring the walls to determine just how much material you'll need and I don't think it really tells thickness, just how many coats to apply (not really detailed about that).
   There's an extensive resource guide at the end of the book, you'll need it if you're actually going to build a house of some sort. If you are collecting a set of books on building and finishing a home this one is all right as a starter book. You'll learn just enough to know whether or not this is something you want to be getting yourself into.



5. I just finished building my strawbale home -- and am very grateful for this book. I have nothing but great things to say about it. This book picks up where others leave off. An absolute must if you plan on using natural materials on your home. One must understand that working with natural materials is hardly a science-- and a fair amount of experementing must be done to get satisfactory results. But the effort will be worth it! Get this book-- you won't be sorry. FYI-- I used an earthen plaster (clay,manure,sand) on the interior and exterior, and finished the interior with an alis and the exterior with a lime plaster and lime wash-- beautiful results!

4 comments about Black & Decker Finishing Basements & Attics: Ideas & Projects for Expanding Your Living Space (Black & Decker).

1. This is a great place to start with if you're a do-it-yourselfer planning to finish your basement. The only drawback I found is that it leaves you wanting more. I ended up buying more books on plumbing, flooring, and building in general. I managed to find several good used books. I'll probably end up buying a book on electrical work too (I'm still working on my basement). I also did a lot of research on the internet. Also, there's a lot of variation on local building codes, so you need to talk to your governing authority to get specifics. In the end, you might decide to do some parts of the job yourself and leave other parts for professionals. In any case, reading through this book will give you a lot of ideas to get started.



2. My wife brought this book and 5 others home from the library for us to review as we are just starting to finish our basement. This book is the best of the six by far. It's drawback is that it is not comprehensive - if you don't have some basic knowledge/experience and you want to do the work yourself, then you will want more detail. For the few pages that are there, however, the book does an excellent job showing the work at hand and gives some good ideas. I'll likely buy the book to have it on hand as we progress. Enjoy your project!



3. I am a complete home improvement dummy who is trying to build out her basement. This book was great at teaching me the basics & forcing me to think in a logical step by step manner - heating first, earthquake proofing next, etc. It also helped me understand drywalling techniques & effective insulation. Further, it helped me focus on building codes & regulations (I hadn't thought of that & as I said, i'm a home improvement dummy). Plus the pictures gave me great ideas. On the whole, a worthwhile investment. This book does assume that you'll want to *do* your own basement so there are tons of pictures showing you how to effectively insulate etc...



4. This is very useful if you are finishing your basement yourself. It walked you through all of the basics from planning and framing to finishing off molding. There is great content in this book and this was one of the heavily referenced books my husband and I used to finish our basement. I would caution you that the photos seem a bit dated, so get another book if you are shopping for ideas.

4 comments about Designing Your Dream Home: Every Question to Ask, Every Detail to Consider, and Everything to Know Before You Build or Remodel.

1. Designing Your Dream Home is a must have for anyone thinking about or in the process of designing or remodeling a home. As I remodeled my kitchen this book kept me from making some very costly mistakes. The biggest mistake I avoided was having custom cabinets made that were not deep enough to hold my oversized dinner plates. Fortunately, I read the kitchen section of this book just in time to call the cabinet makers and have my cabinet dimensions changed to accomodate my plates. By reading this book you will avoid many inconveniences or daily annoyances that could have been avoided. You will not be disappointed!



2. Susan Lang has written a masterpiece for anyone involved in building a new home. There exists in this book all the hidden jewels to create the perfect home with ease. Builders, architects, interior designers, contractors, subcontractors and the lay people who are building their home should have this book at their side at all times. It is complete, detailed yet easy to read with many charts, flow sheets, captured inserts of important points and much much more. Having completed a new home recently I would have loved to have a copy of this book to avoid some of the pitfalls inherent in the building process. I highly recommend that you buy this one and tell your friends about it.
   
   Mark Houston MD
   Nashville, Tennessee



3. Designing your Dream Home is a must read for anyone about to embark on the journey of building or remodeling. The book's easy-to-read format, coupled with the incredibly thought-provoking information contained within, makes it one of the best sources of information for anyone looking to build or remodel. Thanks for the invaluable information!



4. Very thorough and informative. Excellent advice on organizing an important, challenging process. How to get organized outlined in an easy to follow format which saves time, money and headaches! I'm recommending it to everyone I know.

5 comments about The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home.

1. This book was recommmended to me by someone who had read it, so i knew what to expect, a very well researched history of a family and the intertwined relationship of the family as it grew over the generations to the big house that was their common home away from home. The writing was excelllent which made it very easy to relate to the characters that we met and got to know. The stories of the individuals was realistic and punches were not pulled in several of the histories, which made me at times believe that I was reading fiction. When the time came to part with the old home, I was as devastated as George Colt (author) was, I felt so part of the story. A good read.



2. The Big House and The Hidden House are two summer homes on the Atkinson/Colt ancestral property at Buzzard's Bay on Cape Cod. Similarly, author George Colt Howe offers us two stories within one book: First, a magnificent tale of life at that big family summer retreat on Cape Cod and its evolvement over the last century. Second, a stupefying slog through five generations of Boston Brahmin lore. In a nutshell, great granddad was the nineteenth century patriarch who bankrolled the good life for four generations. Hitting tennis balls and winning sailing pennants preoccupied the lives of his progeny, no one else worked too hard. Fortunately, every other generation, an industrious grandson-in-law shows up to keep the home in the family.
   
   The story of the house, and the author's emotional attachment to it, is colorful and endearing. Howe writes with painstaking love for special nooks and crannies of the Big House, of magical childhood memories, and the traditions he wishes he could afford to pass on to his own children. Readers with a longtime family residence, summer home or other special place held dear in their hearts will connect with this author. His descriptions of 'old Cape Cod' chronicle a bygone pre-fastfood era when the Cape was truly an isolated getaway.
   
   You can't blame Howe for the dullness of reading about rich dead white guys who were his forebears. His editors failed him. Skim the genealogy, don't worry about who was who's granduncle or aunt. We could have had more specifics about the patriarch Ned Atkinson, and far less about his descendants. It's always the relatives who spoil a summer vacation.



3. Lots of padding in this book. Hard to read as it was only mildly interesting. It just scraped in for a 3 star rating.



4. I enjoyed reading "The Big House" and have recomended it to several friends. Anyone in the Boston and Cape Cod area or enjoyed summer vacations on the cape would enjoy the book, I highly recommend. I purchased this book from a review, and because it is a true story about real people and an area I have visited. It covered facets of my life. It told how the family used the house and each generation was interested in the previous generations, from the relative that build the house to the present time. It is a good read.



5. I'm on p. 199, reading this in Tel Aviv while keeping my ill sister-in-law company (I'm from California). I have lived every page, every lush detail, and now it's becoming so heartbreakingly sad. I'm in a foreign culture, reading about another very different foreign culture (Boston Brahmins), and reading this book helps me to understand BOTH better.

5 comments about Bungalow Kitchens.

1. I can't even count the number of times I've reread this book or just leafed through and admired the fabulous pictures. As the owner of a 1920 foursquare, nothing makes me sadder than to see an old house that's been "improved" by someone with no sense of history or vintage style. This book celebrates vintage kitchens in painstaking detail, describing the form and function of every single surface, nook and cranny. If you're using this book as a "how to" guide, the authors are realistic enough to give you several levels of authenticity from which to choose -- for instance, are you going to go all the way and have a vintage icebox? Can you not live without a microwave and dishwasher? What kind of screws should you use on your cabinet hinges if you want to be "period authentic?" The companion bathroom book is great, too, but this book is my very favorite and inspired me to replace my brand new (but characterless) gas stove with a yellow and green 1920's model with shapely long legs!



2. I've been toying for years with plans to fix up the kitchen in our 1923 American Foursquare house, but last year when both my nonagenarian grandmothers moved into Assisted Living Facilities, I found myself clearing out their kitchens. When I brought some of their vintage kitchen equipment into my own kitchen, it suddenly came clear that my own kitchen re-do simply had to honor the history of my house and more importantly, the histories of my grandmothers' kitchens.
   
   I am in no way interested in obsessive restoration, but I really needed to see what kitchens of my grandmothers' childhoods and young married lives would look like. What might my own kitchen have looked like when it was first built? There are charming Craftsman details elsewhere in my home... under the barn-red paint and 1970's "country primitive" wallpaper, what was the feel of this room?
   
   This book is like a stroll through a neighborhood-full of kitchens from this era, wonderfully photographed and clearly explained. While my kitchen renovation will be a relatively simple project, I am thrilled to have such a lovely resource on which to base my search for the kitchen that lies beneath all that paint!



3. If you want to be historically accurate, this book is for you. The author gives examples of "Obsessive Restoration" and a "Compromise Solution" for each element of restoring a bungalow kitchen. However, even the compromise was too obsessive for me. In addition, the author wasted way too many pages discussing the history of kitchens, which is irrelevant to me. Her companion book, "Bungalow Bathrooms" is much of the same. I just built a new Craftsman home, and my goal was to build a new home with historic influences, so what I was hoping for were suggestions on how to incorporate modern materials and modern conveniences to achieve a bungalow look. Obviously that was not the author's goal -- she's all about keeping the historical accuracy. For me, "The New Bungalow Kitchen" by Peter LaBau was much more useful. It shows how you can bring bungalow style to your home without it looking outdated and old. And the photos are gorgeous.



4. Being on the extremely limited budget, the idea of restoring our 1923 craftsman kitchen to the obsessive original is not even an option. This fabulous book gives you numerous ideas/ paths as to what a $100,000 restoration would encompass, and then provides compromises that the 'normal' home owner can accomplish with great results. It definitely made me re-contemplate several ideas that we had already set in stone, and I think ultimately will save us investment money. My favorite aspect of this book? Unlike several bungalow magazines (which will go unnamed) that feel the need to pretentiously describe the 'color of fumed oak' and ten million other things that the average home owner will never afford or see, Jane Powell is down to earth and able to 'talk' to you like your neighbor next door.



5. When I was getting ready to restore the kitchen in my 1922 California Bungalow I had no clue where to start. The previous owners had gutted the original kitchen for commerical property use and had put in Pay N Pak cabinets and almond color formica to sell the house. After 13 years living with the new kitchen I decided to put in a period kitchen. Jane's book gave me the courage, inspiration and most important, the clues on where to begin.
   
   My contractor had met Jane at a workshop and respected her expertise. I was able to contact her through her business website. She was so excited and supportive for my project. She is a wonderful person with a great sense of humor as well as history of how our bungalow homes can help us live more healthy and fulfilling lives. And Linda's photos are marvelous.
   One in particular helped me decide to use the six black glass cabinet knobs I found left in the basement. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves their old bungalow. For those building a new bungalow you will find the bones in this book and you might think twice about corian or granite countertops.