2 comments about The Carbon-Free Home: 36 Remodeling Projects to Help Kick the Fossil-Fuel Habit.

1. The Carbon Free home is one of the most useful guides I have ever seen to greening your old white elephant. They give practical advice to city dwellers on how to retrofit your home to make it much less of an energy hog and perhaps even carbon free. There are three dozen realistic DIY projects and hundreds of usable tips and suggestions.
   Nanny Nature gives this book four paws and a tail.



2. Great guide for both the the greenest of green and those who just want to take a few steps to cut their utility bills. The part of book which deals with why the authors decided to leave their hand built cob round house in the woods for the urban living is particularly interesting.

3 comments about Roofing with Asphalt Shingles (For Pros by Pros).

1. Good general instructions and background. I would have liked it to focus more on popular laminate (architectual) shingles, but it still provides adequate instruction to do both.



2. I hadn't done a roof in over a year so I purchased this book as a refresher to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything.
   I thought the book was a very good book that took me step by step.
   I'd highly recommend this book for people looking to get a good understanding of roofing.



3. If you have a hip roof, get some other text: This one will cause you real problems with a hip roof. If you have a simple gable roof, this book can be helpful. For all roofing tasks, this book seems geared mostly towards helping pros speed up production. It lacks the theory and specific "tricks of the trade" that a "do it yourselfer" needs.
   
   This text offers very little that pertains to hip roofs--basically, there's only a few paragraphs mentioning hip roofs and there are no diagrams nor photographs that tell you how to manage the juncture of the "hip ridges" and the "main roof ridge." Those few portions that do mention hip roofs are riddled with errors.
   
   In addition, the information pertaining to the juncture at a hip ridge of two flat roof planes will cause you severe problems--especially if you are applying "laminated" (sometimes called "architectural" or "dimensional") shingles.
   
   The author states that you should overlap shingles where two flat roof planes meet at a hip ridge in order to avoid leaks should the hip ridge caps fly off in a storm. He mentions that this can cause a severe "lump" so he then says you could overlap only one side on the other as a tradeoff which would reduce the size of the "lump" but still provide protection.
   
   Well, maybe if you use the lowest priced thinnest shingles available then an overlap of some sort might be a viable solution. However, as the quality of your chosen single improves, so does its thickness. The 3-dimensional laminated shingles are the thickest.
   
   I tried the single overlap of 4 inches as he recommended. Even that created a huge lump that the ridge caps would never accomodate properly without sagging into the recesses of the created lump. Also, the higher that lump is, the less coverage the caps can provide for the hip ridge junctures.
   
   The shingles I chose were Owens Corning. Seeing the huge lump that even a single overlap caused at a hip ridge, I phoned Owens Corning. They absolutely recommend that the shingles of a flat plane be cut off even and flush with the hip ridge. They provide the warranty and they still recommend cutting flush with the ridge because of the high lump that would otherwise be created. I phoned a friend who owns a roofing company and he recommended the same treatment.
   
   You will notice when scanning through this text, nearly all photographs depict thin 3-tabbed shingles on a gabled roof. So, if you're installing the cheapest, thinnest, 3-tab shingles on a gable style roof with maybe a valley and maybe a dormer, this book can help you discover some short cuts to speed up the job.
   
   If you have a hip roof, get some other text. If you are installing laminated "dimensional" shingles, get some other text.
   
   In any case, if you are an intelligent DIY'er, you'll do as I did and get, at least, 3 or 4 texts to combine theories.
   
   The only text I found that actually shows photographs and describes some sort of detailed information regarding the hip ridge/roof ridge juncture is: "Roof Construction and Estimating" by Daniel Benn Atcheson (yes, there are 2-n's in Benn). However, even that text only depicts plain 3-tabbed shingles.
   
   If you plan to install dimensional laminated shingles, you will be off in a world apart. I haven't found a text that gives a detailed approach to the differences between 3-tab shingle application and dimensional shingle applications.
   
   The text I'm reviewing doesn't tell you much at all about laminated dimensional shingles. You will do well by reading the package wrapper of your purchased shingles thoroughly for instructions pertaining to nailing patterns, offset requirements, and allowable distances between gaps and fasteners of adjacent courses. Owens Corning has downloadable PDF's for their products and I'd surely recommend that you read those as well if you choose OC products.
   
   So, the title of this text says it's for pros by pros. Believe it! No matter how smart you are, if you are an inexperienced do it yourselfer, don't head into a roofing project with only this text in hand. If you're a pro roofer looking to speed up the work performed by your crew on the roof--this book can help you some.

4 comments about The Complete Idiot's Guide to Green Living (Complete Idiot's Guide to).

1. 
   I really do try to live as green as I can, considering that I'm always broke and continuously running around with all my various jobs. So I was curious to see what this book had to suggest, and to see if there was anything that I didn't know about that I could do.
   
   In general, I am probably doing all I can. I recycle as much of my garbage as I can, throwing old fruit, bread and such out to the "birdies and the beasties" that visit my yard. I don't use pesticides, instead I encourage the geckos and anoles and chameleons to take up residence in and around my place to eat the bugs. I also allow the wolf spiders to live under the furniture (just now out in my regions of the house) because while they're big and ugly, they do eat the bugs I really hate, including roaches.
   
   This book, though, does give you a lot of information about how to keep your home and your family away from all the nasty chemicals. It also gives you things that you can do if you have money and want to feel less guilty about it. (grin) There's information on how to buy energy credits, hybrid cars, home furnishings that utilize recycled materials, and how to build alternative power sources into your home.
   
   One of the things I found very interesting was the idea that it's perfect okay to have a lawn, as long as you don't use a lot of chemicals on it. In fact, having a lawn helps the environment. I'd always been of the mind that grass and the environment were rather at odds with each other, but they don't have to be.
   
   The book lists lots of informational web sites, and gives basic run downs on organic gardening, the difference between eating "green" and what the market will try to sell you as "green," and the joys of learning to eat what is in season rather than demanding certain fruits and vegetables year round.
   
   I hadn't put a lot of thought into the fact that eating fruit from South American means that it had to be transported to the USA, and that therefore, even if it was raised organically, it has mucked up the environment through shipping.
   
   There's information on "ecotourism" wherein you can go to exotic places (buying energy credits so you don't have to feel guilty about the airfare), and then spend time in a natural hotel (meaning not air conditioned, built with local materials, and as environmentally sustainable as possible). There's apparently a place in China that is particularly nice.
   
   Personally, I'll admit that if I'm going on vacation, I don't want to be where there's no air conditioning, no internet connection, and I really like my creature comforts. I mean, what's the point of a vacation if you're not being pampered?
   
   But for people who love camping and outdoors activities, these are probably lovely places. I just prefer my expensive vacations to be a little more about my comfort. And yes, that's not environmentally sound, but hey, I won't have my sheets changed while I'm there and I'll be conservative with the towels. Okay?
   
   The book is written clearly, and the information is presented well. The highlights are quotes from people who really know and understand the environment and the issues surrounding it. There's even suggestions of how you can talk to your children about living green, making it seem less like you're denying them things, and more like you're giving them something real that they can take into their lives and use.
   
   If you want to know what all the possibilities are, this is a great book. It's simple, quick to read, and organized in a way that you can go back and find the information you want without having to plow through an index and hope you have the right key word.
   
   WP



2. Finally, a book on how to go green that is simple, smart and reeeally useful to someone like me who is just starting out. Trish Riley knows how to hold your hand and give sensible advice on how to avoid chemicals in your food, in your home, in communities and even with cosmetics!
   
   The book is broken down into chapters that allow you to access all the information for the particular area of your life that you want to do better with. I absolutely love the little boxes showing "Hazard" areas, for example, one of these "Hazard" boxes taught me that imported foods don't have to meet the same standards in their own countries to be labeled organic as they do here in the US. Another little Hazard box taught me not to pour vinegar down my drain (which I do all the time) right after pouring drain cleaner down it (!) because the chemical reaction could cause dangerous fumes.
   
   It's useful information like this that I found sprinkled throughout the book, which is a very solid guide. The science is there if want it, but it's not over your head. The section in Chapter 12 on pesticides was very sobering, I had no idea that 1,400 various pesticide chemicals can be found in household products that we use every day. One of the tricks she mentioned was that you can reseed annually to keep weeds at bay and keep your grass thick. Now this is simple for those of you who understand gardening, but to a beginner like me (who is sensitive to many chemicals) this simple cost-effective trick is fascinating.
   
   Another aspect of this book that I enjoyed so much were the "Going Green" boxes that I found in every chapter. These boxes contained useful tidbits to help you do better at home. One of the best "Going Green" tips that Riley put in Chapter 18 had to do with the fact that more than 3.5 million tons of paper --mostly junkmail & catalogs-- is sent out annually (in the form of catalogs) and you can save about 60 million trees by stopping the junk mail. She gives an address to write to, and a website you can visit to register online. By doing this, you will help save trees and cut down on junkmail. For me, this advice was worth the price of the book!
   
   It's the little tidbits of information that I found in each chapter that I think makes this book worth buying. It's not a cover-to-cover read, it's more of a manual that you can call upon to use when you want to attack and fix an area of your home, garden, work, daily life, cosmetic drawer, kitchen pantry, etc...
   
   I confess that I'm not as green as I'd like to be, I'm the sort that wants to drive a Jeep to Whole Foods, and while I avoid meat, I do own a couple of leather wallets...but still, I am trying hard to protect my family, and the Earth that we live in. I think Riley did a good job at getting ALOT of difficult information out to the world, and she did it in a very conversational, easy-to-understand way. I've read other books on the subject, but kept none because they were just to scientific, or too boring, or impractical to my real life. It's clear that Riley is quite intelligent, but I never felt like she was talking down to the reader. Instead, I felt a sense of passion about the planet, and her genuine desire to help those of us learn some simple ways to do our part. I am thrilled about getting started and in my own little way, I know I'll make a difference thanks to the sensible advice in this book. As far as I'm concerned, Riley rocks!!!



3. "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Green Living" by the award winning journalist Trish Riley is a wonderful book, which has awakened this reader to the most significant issues of the day. I have rarely learned as much from one source in so short a time. Global warming, saving energy at home, reducing fuel consumption, chemicals in food, changing our energy habits for a healthier future, growing green in the workplace and the community, and teaching our children the principles of Green Living are only a few of the topics covered in an interesting and attention-grabbing manner, helped along with sidebars and illuminating cartoons.
   
   The book is full of useful nuggets of information, such as the quote by Susan Glickman, consultant to the Natural Resources Defense Council. "I wonder if people realize that so much of the money they pay to their electric companies goes to hire lobbyists to fight against the public's interest." And "A metal roof can last twice as long as an asphalt shigle roof." And most horrifying of all, "EPA's political boss sacrificed the lives of 5 to 10,000 Americans each year, who will now die from air pollution related srokes and heart and lung disease," by John Walke, Natural Resources Defense Council.
   
   "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Green Living" was reviewed by Jim Motavalli, editor of the award-winning "E/The Environmental Magazine" and author of several books on the environment. Motavalli carefully reviewed it for scientific accuracy, which is why I object to the "review" and rating of the book on this site by Thomas B. Grizzle, who informs readers that he is a scientist who knows something about the issues of green living, and makes the vague claim that Riley's book contains a "fair amount of mis-information" in it. In the opinion of this Ph.D., Grizzle's evaluation greatly misrepresents the material in the book, and gives advice that will be followed to the detriment of a public which needs to be informed of these all-important issues.
   
   The book is interesting reading, extremely informative, even amusing at times, and is highly recommended for neophytes and "old hands"alike.



4. "Going green" can be a daunting task. If you just start with this book, you are miles ahead the rest of the country. And, if you only get one "green book" make it this one. And then get more to give to all your family and friends. Plant one in your powder room. SOMETHING in there will strike someone as SOMETHING they CAN do. Get it. Get several.

No comments about Classic Kitchen Style: The Essential Handbook for a Timeless Design.

1 comments about Design Ideas for Bathrooms (Design Ideas).

1. I really liked this book. It has many design ideas and great instructions. The pictures make it nice to see the finished project. I would recommend this book.

2 comments about Working Windows, 3rd: A Guide to the Repair and Restoration of Wood Windows.

1. This book covers the restoration to working condition of various types of windows found in old homes. The information is presented in a clear, easy to follow format. Unlike most books of this type it is written so well that it is fun to read even if you don't want to fix windows. The author has a great sense of humor and I often found myself laughing out loud and learning at the same time.



2. This book was very helpful in showing how to repair old windows. It is geared mostly to windows that have pulleys and weights however. Mine have friction brakes on the side so that part wasn't helpful, but there was a lot of other good info.

3 comments about Lyn Peterson's Real Life Kitchens.

1. What great timing for me to find this book! I had just begun plans to renovate my kitchen and everything I need to know is in this book! Questions about little details that I knew would trip me up later -- they are all covered. There are so many decisions to be made when renovating a kitchen, it's pretty overwhelming. This book covers all the bases. Nice photos and layout too.



2. This book is like a secret interior designers handbook for all to understand. It answers all questions and gives opinions of the author's own personal style as well as her clients. She projects actual dimensions (such as how much countertop overhang is needed at the kitchen island for a stool) so you know what you are talking about when you meet with the designers that you are going to purchase goods from. I have found this book much more helpful than all the other kitchen books I have combined. Well worth the money.



3. Excellent book which covers all the things you need to know. Not just photos although there are many & they are excellent, but also good solid information which you might not think about on your own.

2 comments about How to Fix Everything For Dummies.

1. It's incredibly lame for amazon to require a comment in this field in order to accept a rating. 4 stars is 4 stars. deal with it, amazon!



2. I bought this as a reference to help out since I am a new homeowner. So far any minor problems I have encountered have been covered by the material in the book. I would recommend it to anyone as a useful guide to keep on hand.

5 comments about Designed to Sell: Make any home the hottest property on the block with expert advice from the popular HGTV series.

1. Great pictures and the suggestions are truly helpful. I don't know how they get the furniture they use for so cheap but the ideas they use are great. If you are interested in Staging your home to sell it faster, this is one book I do recommend.



2. This was not the book I was expecting. It's just a rehash of the TV show. I should have done more research.



3. If you are a fan of this show, you will lve this book. We decided to take our house off the market, but when it was on, we got TONS of compliments on the look of our home, from buyers and agents. This is a good design book, even if you don't plan to move!



4. I love this book! The show is great, and the book is very informative for anyone even thinking about selling their home in the future.



5. This is a fun book to read, full of lots of before and after pictures, but I wish there were more; more pictures, more projects, more. The book is organized by room, which is really nice, and for homes that are featured in multiple sections, the writer references the pages where you can find the other rooms. The descriptions are detailed and a budget breadown is included. It's a great resource and fun book (as stated), but I'm looking forward to a new release.

5 comments about Lady on the Hill: How Biltmore Estate Became an American Icon.

1. There is not a whole lot of literature around when it comes to the Vanderbilts and the Biltmore. SO this book is a refreshing and very easy to read story about the Vanderbilts and their successes leading up to the building of Biltmore taking 6 years.
   
   Everyone that can find the time and is planning to visit the Biltmore should read this before going. The Biltmore is so large and there are so many things to see that a visit requires some advanced planning to get the whole picture about this family and this American marvel. After our first visit to the Biltmore during this year's Christmas lights, we bought an annual access pass (upgrade while your day pass is still valid and you save a bundle), this and a picture history book. Now we are planning to go back and be prepared to really udnerstand this marvellous site.



2. This book is intriguing for those who enjoy nonfiction. It describes how Biltmore formed a business to keep from being sold and subdivided, what happened to the family members since George's death, and the relationship between Biltmore and the city of Asheville, among other things. It is extremely interesting if you would like to know more about the history of the estate and its families.



3. Half way through the book it just becomes tedious. There is a fair amount of repetition. I had to purchase another book because this one lacks enough photos. We are planning a trip there in the coming weeks
   and now I think I know more than I need to know.



4. I've read and studied regarding the lives of the Vanderbilt families and the Biltmore inparticular. This is truly one of the BEST books I've read. We've all learned about the house and George Vanderbilt's ideas and thinking on building Biltmore. This book describes the life of his wife Edith and their daughter Cornelia after his death and what they had to go through to keep Biltmore after his death. The research is absolutely amazing. For anyone who is interested or obsessed with The Biltmore, this is a MUST read.



5. This book is a good means of learning about the Biltmore family, its history, notable members, the means through which the clan's wealth was acquired, and also about its magnificent chateau near Asheville, North Carolina. (An awe-inspiring place, but staffed by some of the rudest human beings who ever drew breath.) This book's flaws relate to the fact it seems padded to fill out its length and does come close to re-using the same material more than once: and sadly the most dry parts are the ones re-used.