3 comments about Tips & Traps for Hiring a Contractor (Tips & Traps).

1. Lots of detail and mostly easy to read, but some important terminology and practices are not explained that a 1st timer would not know.



2. I'm so glad I got a chance to read this informative book before starting the renovation of our home!
   
   The author is clearly an expert in this field and goes into detail in every aspect of the process, with the bottom line of making the consumer a savvy, discerning shopper. The author covers all angles of the contracting process, from making the plans and specifications, to hiring a contractor, to what forms are needed to be filled out. I learned about how to spot a shady contractor; how to get things in writing - especially specific time frames; how to make sure the contractor has a physical address and telephone number, and much, much, more.
   
   The eye-opener of this book was the lien waiver. Unbeknownst to me, if a disagreement occurs with a contractor, and I do not pay, they can place a lien on the property! The lien waiver releases the property from the threat of a lien. The author has a sample copy of what a lien waiver looks like.
   
   This book is a must for any homeowner thinking of remodeling/renovating their home! I recommend it highly.



3. Avoid falling prey to unscrupulous contractors with a guide authored by a 30-year contracting veteran and the author of many other titles on the topic. Tips & Traps For Hiring A Contractor: Expert Advice On Hiring A Contractor Without Getting Taken covers all the basics, from the initial screening of home-improvement professionals to eliminating the bad ones before signing anything, negotiating effectively, understanding contracts and agreements, and even understanding design, planning and maintenance options. An excellent guide to handling contractors, no matter what the job.

No comments about Complete Home Plumbing (Complete...).

No comments about Bloomsbury Rooms: Modernism, Subculture, and Domesticity.

4 comments about The New American House 2: Innovations in Residential Design and Construction: 30 Case Studies (New American Architecture).

1. This book is a fantastic reference for those interested in architecture or who just like to look at amazing houses. if you like this book, look into the rest of the series. Over all, a great book.



2. I love this book. Contemporary architecture is often misunderstood and misrepresented by focusing on the extreme or most useless of structures. In this book Ojeda takes us into some of the most beautiful, yet utilitarian, contemporary homes from the Arizona desert to Manhattan. He explains the design choices made and more importantly why they were made for the different designs. Included in the book are numerous beautiful photos of the different projects and architectural sketches of the projects.

   This book would be a wonderful 'idea book' for an architect, or someone like me who is looking for ideas to give to an architect in preparation for building a new house. It is also a simply beautiful book to look at and learn from, both in design concepts specifically, and in building materials as well. I highly endorse this book as one of the best illustrated generalist books available on contemporary architecture. The ideas you will get for your own home alone are worth the cost.




3. While not an architect or builder, I am browsing various ideas and methods. This is a great book for getting all the flavors from concrete prefab and rammed-earth to wood-frame with copper exteriors. In one case, a pre-fabbed house is given a timeline picture page showing the construction progress to finish. The pictures are nearly perfect, both encompassing and detailed with briefs that are pretty informative for their length. It's the information that you want with little else. Materials, construction methods and in most cases, cost. Excellent diagrams and cross-sections too. Worth it for someone who wants to build but isn't sure about the materials and methods they want to use, as well as sighting some good ideas.



4. The second covering houses and one of several in a series that highlight and describe the potential of American domestic architecture. It illustrates the possibilities and alternatives to the popular Martha Stewart/Bob Villa suburban style that has taken away so much recognition from American architects. Stunning photographs and simple detail drawings illustrate several different homes; each with it's own character.

   If you are a do-it-yourself type or looking to hire an architect, this is a great place to start. This book will illustrate how a much a professionally designed house stands out from the Home Depot remodel or typical "custom" suburban home designed by a contractor.

   If you are an architect, this is a great reference for residential projects illustrating rigorous use of materials and simplicity of concept, without the heavy "archispeak". It is also a great primer for potential clients, exposing them to the possibilities of design.

1 comments about Air-conditioning America: Engineers and the Controlled Environment, 1900-1960 (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology).

1. Ms Cooper has a great writing style which lends itself perfectly to the understanding of the uninitiated and untechnical layman of this topic. The unexpectedly fresh view into how to see the spaces in which we live made this book a special page-turner which can amuse and delight almost anybody. I highly recommend this book to those who onlt see the spaces we live and work in as shells and the unseen workings of the air-conditioning systems as only on or off.

5 comments about Frank Lloyd Wright's California Houses (Wright at a Glance Series).

1. I'm a semi-retired architect from the mid west and while in CA, I took the time to look at Wright's "Textile Block" houses, it was worth the trip
   I had met Wright many years ago and had always liked his creative approach, that gives you an idea of my age
   The "Textile Block" houses are in varying states of repair and disrepair and are not accessible, except from the street
   The book fills in some of the gaps and I wish that it was in a larger scale and had more
   The color is welcome since a lot of Wright's work is often seen only in black and white
   I'm going to buy a 2nd copy for my son



2. These little books are pretty much a joke. Not much information or photos (it is a tiny, thin book.)



3. the lack of floor plans of engineering drawings makes this more of a fanzine for the textile block houses. nice photos and text though. look elsewhere for informaiton useful to designers, students or architects.



4. "Frank Lloyd Wright's California Houses," by Carla Lind, is one of a series of "mini-books" by the author, each of which focuses on a particular facet of this great architect's work. This volume focuses on a remarkable group of homes designed by Wright between 1917 and 1927.

   Like other volumes in this series, this book combines a brief but informative text with a wealth of full-color photos. Lind also includes a bibliography, a chronology, black-and-white historical photos, and sidebar quotes from various sources.

   The photos of the California houses capture many interior and exterior details. These marvelous homes reflect the spirit of the pre-Columbian civilizations of Mexico and Central America; in fact, they look like modern versions of ancient Mayan temples. It is amazing to look at the patterned concrete blocks, the innovative use of glass, and the other distinctive features of these homes.

   Wright's California homes are majestic, yet inviting buildings that have a timeless beauty and grace to them. This little book is a wonderful tribute to these great homes.




5. The book is so specific that just by reading it you could build the exact same house on your own in no time! Extensive info on all the residences including furniture set-ups. Lots and lots of quotes from the master himself. Descriptives will take you on a virtual reality tour.

No comments about 25 Tropical Houses in Singapore and Malaysia.

5 comments about Heaven in Stone and Glass: Experiencing the Spirituality of the Great Cathedrals.

1. This book is the door that opened me to the appreciation of Medieval arts from the eye of one who counts the past as a great heritage. People these days often think of the Medieval days with a certain sense of despise. We forget that we see a bigger world than the Medieval people did because we are standing on their shoulders. While we may know more about this world, we have much to learn from their understanding regarding the world yet to come, because spiritual truths are timeless. Spiritual truths aren't about how many angels standing on a pinhead. This book brings the spirituality of this ancient heritage vividly to life. Being a protestant myself, I certainly benefited greatly from it, because church history did not begin from the Reformation.



2. Fr. Barron's book was used in the course on the church and the arts at my seminary; the course strives to connect various aspects of art, architecture, music, etc. into the spiritual life of the church - this book fulfills that purpose admirably. It is an extended meditation upon humanity's link with God, using the idea and image of the Gothic cathedral as the central icon or focus upon which this meditation is based.
   
   His analysis is erudite and wide-ranging, drawing upon his own experiences and reflections, as well as references past and present in the greater corpus of Christian and intellectual traditions. For example, in the chapter on Virtues and Vices, Barron flows easily from Aquinas to Flannery O'Connor (both of whom are frequently reference throughout the text); in other places, he incorporates Bertrand Russell and Pythagoras on mathematics, Tillich's idea of the ground of being, Rahner's idea about the incomprehensibility of God, the theologies of Augustine and Teilhard, Dorothy Day and the Desert Fathers. The ideas incorporated here include those of this world and of other worlds, drawn together into harmony and unity, while still retaining aspects of particularity.
   
   Barron looks at particular aspects of the cathedral, drawing both on the physical and emotional responses one might get being in a cathedral. There are architectural and artistic features of cathedrals designed to deliberately evoke certain responses, symbolic of the status and relationship of human beings to God and the heavens. This includes the darkness upon entering, the verticality and light of the high windows, and even the very shape of the cathedral itself. `The building itself is a cross,' Barron writes; `as we walk through it, admiring its variegated faces and aspects, we are, unavoidably, walking through a cross.'
   
   Barron explores the design features such as tall walls, flying buttresses, and cruciformity, as well as the artistic features such as rose windows, labyrinths, gargoyles, and the exterior facades. Elaborate in detail and polyvalent in interpretative possibility, the Gothic cathedral includes elements for people of differing educational levels and backgrounds, seeking to be a place where all of humanity could come together as one before God. `There are indeed no greater shrines to a spirituality of the earth than the Gothic cathedrals produced by the medieval mind.' These churches were intended both as portals to heaven as well as a foretaste of heaven.
   
   This is a short book - indeed, I was able to read it in one sitting. Part of this was due to the engrossing nature of Barron's writing; it is easy to get swept away into the spiritual heights and depths of his descriptions and narrative flow. Each brief essay can stand alone (just as one might focus upon a particular aspect, such as praying the labyrinth in a cathedral), but like the cathedral, it is the combination of all the aspects taken together that makes it truly remarkable - there is a comprehensive vision that forms from Barron's meditation. This is a book that calls for repeated readings, and shall accompany me the next time I visit a cathedral.
   
   This is a good resource for those interested in architecture and churches, as well as those who want a rather unique way of thinking about spiritual growth and representations in the world. Nonetheless, Barron is quite definite in his conviction that the Gothic cathedral, however remarkable a construct, is still a place that needs the life of the people around it for its true fullness to come into being; `if the cathedral is a body, then the liturgy - both celestial and earthly - is its soul.' The worship of the church always looks beyond itself, even in the midst of such splendour.



3. Fr. Barron's book is truly a small gem. Very compact and readable yet extremely spiritual and philosophical, it gets right at the heart of the very essence of the great cathedrals. Simply looking at their form, though very beautiful in itself, is not enough without completely immersing oneself in the mentality and spirit of the people who built them. This rich mentality is in sharp contrast to the agnostic hedonism that resulted from the Enlightenment. As an architecture student, it gives me great hope that, as he points out in the book, we are in an age when people are becoming increasingly interested in spirituality and symbolism and long for a reality deeper than the profane and the mundane. Given the spiritually and architecturally impoverished and overall pathetic nature of most Catholic churches built in the past three decades, this meditation is like a candle in the dark, not only harkening back to a time when everyone knew that God was the center of the universe, but inspiring hope that that time will one day return. In short, this is an excellent book that I recommend to everyone.



4. Cathedrals are monoliths of faith gone by; sacred geometries that tower above cities and towns throughout Europe. Cathedrals are now major attractions for tourist groups, projects for endless restorations and museums of meditation.

   In "Heaven In Stone and Glass", Father Robert Barron (a Catholic priest and professor of theology) has brought together a readable devotional, that combines a heavy dose of fundamental theology with a brief pragmatic explanation of how and why the Great Cathedrals were built as they were.

   But be apprized that this text is really a devotional that uses cathedrals as the illustration for Father Barron's homilies. Robert Barron spent years in France and uses the Cathedrals of Notre-Dame and Chartres as his architectural examples, but these cathedrals are applicable to the propensity of cathedrals throughout the world Some readers may quail at the conservative theology that Robert Barron promotes. He states that we must come to grips with the fact that we are sinners "disoriented, lost, desperately in need of a guide". And that the church is the ark of our salivation "as long as we sinners stay in the confines of the church, we will make our way to the light." However, if this is not your spiritual belief, don't take flight, for Robert Barron's writing is as engaging as it is opinionated.

   I read this while visiting the great Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, Norway, and I highly recommend that you read it while visiting a Cathedral. This book can add meaning to your next cathedral experience while providing a strong devotional base. It is evident that cathedrals hold stories of salvation to those who can read them as a metaphor. They are "symbolic manifestations of a spiritual universe that cannot be seen" and much more than stone and glass. Robert Barron has written an engaging devotional and useful guide. Recommended




5. Robert Barron's enlightening little book explores the rich symbolic world of medieval cathedrals. Written as a series of fifteen meditations, "Heaven in Stone and Glass" approaches the cathedral as an intentional evocation of both Christian belief and the Christian journey. Barron's observations are rich in metaphor and allusion. His images are strongly drawn: the nave as womb, cruciformity as a way of the cross for all entrants, verticality as an invitation to transcendence, the rose as music of the spheres. He is also a voluminous reader, citing sources as diverse as the Desert Fathers, Dante, Flannery O'Connor, and Alisdair MacIntyre.

   One criticism though. Despite his deep knowledge of cathedrals and their meaning, Barron misstated a few architectural details. Mostly notable was his contention that the flying buttress (not the pointed arch) was the architectural breakthrough that made brilliant illumination possible. But don't let this lapse deter you from enjoying this excellent book.

2 comments about Moderne: Fashioning the French Interior.

1. This is a beatiful addition to the library of anyone interested in art, interior design or the history of both. Together, Sarah Schleuning and Jeremy Aynsley present an interesting history of the pochoir technique - a method of creating coloured illustrations of an interior designers intent. Full of charming full colour pochoir illustrations of the work of France's finest designers, its as fascinating as it is inspirational.



2. This is a fabulous book not intended for the lay person. The illustrations of French deco rooms is a very welcome change from super-staged photography that's all the rage these days in interior design books and mags. This reminds me of the wonderful fashion illustrations that have bitten the dust over the years (since the 60's) to be replaced by styled-to-death prepubescents in haute couture. It's wonderful to see something so beautifully done by hand get a chance. Buy it immediately if not sooner!!
   Stylemaven

1 comments about Historic Building Façades: The Manual for Maintenance and Rehabilitation (Preservation Press).

1. This book has a very good desription of how to restore old facades and outlines numerous possiblities of why the facade my have failed. The pictures and graphics also help to complete the book in that it gives great examples to link the nomiclature and pictures together.