1 comments about Insulating Concrete Forms for Residential Design and Construction.

1. ...I was pleasantly surprised that it was an informative text that addressed important points in construction with Interlocking Concrete Forms. While geared towards construction and engineering veiw points, it does answer many questions understandable for a do-it-your-selfer. Very informative and recommended.

4 comments about Building Decks (Black & Decker Home Improvement Library).

1. Searched through many how-to books before a friend let me borrow this one. It provided all of the specific information I needed to actually build a deck. The others were wastes of money.



2. This book provides complete, concise, clear, step-by-step instructions for deck building. Great photos clarify text and make the project seem exciting. I bought two books on decks and returned the other...this one had everything I needed.



3. This will be the only reference that you will need to build either a porch or a deck. Far superior to any of the other three deck books I used from a library. A must own!



4. I have not found a book that covers everything anybody needs to know about decks, but this is the most thorough one I have seen...lots of good pictures. I still don't know how much I should pay for my deck though. I guess I'll have to get multiple quotes from contractors to make sure I'm not overpaying for it.

2 comments about The House Book.

1. One of my favorite interior books. Very appealing '60s and '70s interiors that seem to belong to interesting people. This book has an authenticity and appeal that you will not find in other interior books of the period, which often lean too far in the direction of bland professionalism or tacky manufacturer promotions. Also a glimpse of European family life and mores. Veterans of 1970s Northern California will recognize certain tropes, such as diagonal wood siding, rainbow murals, and children with Free to Be You and Me records.



2. Although this book was published in the 1970s, the concepts of combining various textures, colors, materials, and their placement in each space of your home are timeless. The photography is amusingly dated, though. Even so, the staged designs on each page are delicious to flip through - it look very much like an Ikea catalog... but from the 1970s!

1 comments about Smart Kitchen: How to Create a Comfortable, Safe, Energy-Efficient, and Environment-Friendly Workspace.

1. This book is well organized and very effective in delivering essencial information for the design of a kitchen.Every detail/problem has been thought of and/or resolved. It gives direct and clear recomendations that will deffinitively save you money, time and effort.

No comments about Accounting and Financial Management for Builders Remodelers, & Developers.

3 comments about In My World: Designing Living & Learning Environments for the Young.

1. I have read and enjoyed Miss Logrippo's book titled In My World . I found the book of interest on several levels:
   

   · Miss Logrippo demonstrates a through knowledge of the subject matter.
   

   · She imparts not only decorating ideas but also the psychological and educational reasons for each decorating approach. As an Early childhood teacher it was fascinating to read how room decorating impacts a child's healthy mental and physical growth.
   

   · The author believes children should co-design their rooms with parents to optimize the child's environment for their needs and enjoyment of their living space. If a child's opinions and needs are considered in the design of the child's room then the child will have a vested interest in helping to maintain his room. Many exciting ideas are given to update the look of older furnishings.
   

   I would describe In My World as a "how to" book; but it doesn't read like one.

   Miss Logrippo writes with humor and illustrates her directions with antidotes from her career and childhood experiences. I was drawn into the book by the author's writing style




2. A very well-designed book that combines bright, clever photos with very practical and interesting info. Very useful for designing great kids' rooms and raising creative kids



3. I purchased a copy of this book when it was first published, and it is dog-eared from use!! I have loaned it out numerous times to friends who have ALL raved about it, and I continue to use it as a reference as I update my boys rooms as they grow. I HIGHLY recommend it & can't say enough about it!!!

2 comments about Wind Power for Home & Business: Renewable Energy for the 1990s and Beyond (Real Goods Independent Living Book).

1. I have recently become interested in Wind Energy and the possibilities it presents for NY. With a finite supply coal/oil/ and other fossil fuels it is a matter of time before alternative forms of energy become cost effective.

   Gipe was able to present an overview of Wind Energy. He offers mathematical equations for the energy produced, The difference between Energy and Power, and practical presentation of how, what, and why Wind is a viable source.

   Chapters include: Measuring Wind, Estimating output, Economics of the system, Towers, Interconnections with a Utility, Stand Alone, Water pumping, Installation, and Safety.

   I would have liked to see more detail on placement added into the chapters but Gipe does give you other sources to look into.

   Overall Gipe does an excellent job of presenting Wind energy in an understandable fashion. I would recommend any interested in venturing into wind energy would start with reading this book. I am reading it for a second time.




2. Many would like to take advantage of the wind, a so-called 'free' energy resource to do things ranging from pumping water for irrigation to supplying their home or business energy needs. Over the course of the book, via extended examples of practical, functioning and active wind power systems, Paul Gipe makes clear just how 'free' this free energy source actually is.
   
   While Mr. Gipe concedes readily that the wind can be harnessed to provide energy, he also patiently explains the limitations in doing so. Mr. Gipe is probably the technology's most level-headed advocate, and he makes clear what these systems can and can not do.
   
   Although wind energy systems have lots of potential, they often fall short for several practical reasons. As Mr. Gipe quickly points out, not all sites are suitable for harnessing the wind, and the most important criterion for wind energy development is the stability of the wind resource, and not necessarily its maximum speed (as it turns out, practically all commercially available systems will not produce any energy above a certain speed, for aerodynamic reasons). This is the first and most common misconception that Mr. Gipe dispels, and throughout the book he provides a lot of clarification on many other wind energy myths and misconceptions. A second very common misconception among the public, who have been sold these energy systems based on their clean image (zero greenhouse gas emissions), is the ongoing confusion between power and energy, which many consider to be equal. Gipe takes us slowly through the mathematics, and shows us the important difference between power and energy.
   
   Many unscrupulous advocates of so-called 'free' energy- solar and/or wind power have fooled more than a few technological neophytes by citing the high efficiency of such systems at converting the wind to power, er, ah, I mean energy. However, this is misleading for two reasons. First, power is not what we at home pay for; we pay for energy. Second, and most important, these knaves often cite efficiency at hub height, and not in terms of final output (which is what you really are paying for), when they 'sell' (more like hype) wind power. Granted there is lots of energy in the wind, but that is energy of motion, and that has to be ultimately converted into electrical energy to brew your coffee or run your toaster, and alas, the efficiency of such conversions is rather low, right around that for coal or petroleum fired electric power plants (and a bit below that of natural gas fired plants).
   
   The book covers all the wind power basics, from estimating your wind resource (distribution of wind speeds for your particular site), to estimating your annual energy output with a given system, to costing the system and issues related to siting and installation. All in all, it is a very comprehensive book, complete with chapters devoted to each aspect of an individual wind energy system- rotor, transmission, tower, as well as issues dealing with interconnection to the utility and proper transformation of voltage for home use.
   
   For me, the most important admission made in the book is the fact that no one can say exactly how much power (uh, energy!) the system will deliver. Because the wind is an intermittent resource, the amount of useful energy output depends to a great extent on the type of wind resource one has, namely the distribution of wind speeds throughout the year, and less on such things as the size of the rotor, the height of the tower and the efficiency of the entire system. In fact, because each system is unique in that it has a different rotor diameter, hub height and total system efficiency, one must estimate for each and every system under consideration the annual energy output. Failure to do so will mean overestimating the capability of your site and your wind energy system, and in turn, not getting all the energy you may require. As a result, knowing your site and its wind speed distribution (generally five years of data) is more important than the type of system you choose.
   
   As a result, I have come to see wind energy systems for the home not as an enabling technology but as a limiting technology. This is the primary reason why investor owned and municipal utilities tend to use these systems as peak energy off-sets, and not as dedicated systems to meet fixed energy demands. Though Gipe does not say this in so many words, he does admit that the technology, while having many possible applications and lots of potential, also has a lot of fundamental limitations.
   
   Mr. Gipe has written a few other books on the subject, some of them a bit more recent than this one. Still, this book makes for a good, clear and level-headed introduction to a much hyped technology.
   

1 comments about Remodeling (Best of Fine Homebuilding).

1. Builder's Library is a compilation of articles that appeared in Fine Homebuilding magazine published by Taunton Press. The series covers home improvement and remodeling topics including tiling, ceramic tile, carpentry, woodworking, tools, framing, masonry, window and skylight issues.

No comments about Creative Kitchen Decorating (Creating Your Home Series).

No comments about Dodge Repair & Remodel Cost Book (Sweet's Repair & Remodel Cost Guide).