Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green House: Bringing Your Home into Harmony with Nature (Natural Home & Garden) [Paperback]

Carol Venolia (Author), Kelly Lerner (Author)

Book Description

Series: Natural Home & Garden | Publication Date: June 28, 2006

This absolutely indispensable and lavishly photographed guide will become a cornerstone work for years to come. It redefines the best way to "go green" and addresses a timely topic in a way designed to appeal to a growing and eager audience. Completely user-friendly and filled with motivational case studies and informative graphics. Every page leads would-be remodellers through the process of understanding their home and surroundings so they'll arrive at the perfect design solution.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

We're pleased to announce that Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green-House has been selected as a finalist for the 2007 Nautilus Book Awards .

The Nautilus Book Award is given for distinguished literary contributions. It recognizes authors and books that contribute to our society's awareness and well-being, and which embrace spiritual and ecological values such as compassion, sustainability, simplicity, and global peace.

About the Author

Carol Venolia specializes in the field of eco-healthy building. Her first book, Healing Environments, has enjoyed international success, and her home designs have been featured in The Natural House Catalog, Earth to Spirit, The Healthy House, and Environ magazine. Carol currently writes the "Design for Life" column for Natural Home & Garden magazine.

 

Kelly Lerner is an award-winning architect and innovator in the fields of sustainable development, straw-bale construction, and earthen plasters. She spearheaded an internationally recognized project responsible for building more than 600 passive-solar-heated straw-bale houses in China. Her designs have been featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine, Metropolis Magazine, The Straw Bale House, Serious Straw Bale, The New Straw Bale House, and Green by Design.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Lark Books (June 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579906540
• ISBN-13: 978-1579906542
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #474,844 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much more than I imagined..., February 26, 2007

By 

M. Leaman (SE MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green House: Bringing Your Home into Harmony with Nature (Natural Home & Garden) (Paperback)

I am pretty much tearing my hiouse down and rebuilding it. I've been so stuck in reviewing technical aspects of framing construction and the sort that I really got hung up in "styles" and "curb appeal" and lost site of what living in my house really meant to me...being happy in my space and surrondings. I happened to order because it was suggested with another I purcahsed and it changed almost everything I was looking at and thinking of. An example, after working through some of the reading I was reminded during this cold February in Michigan that I love the smell of a coming rain storm and the feel of a breeze through a house. I went back and made some great changes to my technical specs based on the site analysis the book recommeded. I wasn't thinking about prevailing winds and storm directions at all other than the general rules of which way to point a house! Another absolutley great point is that this book is green without an agenda. I'm only half way through but I haven't read anything about building my house out of used bottles or tires yet and at one point the book suggests that a classic green application can have a resource cost point that makes it a disadvantage to the modern contemporary appraoch. Everyone wants to be at least a little green and this book helps. It's a great book and is loaded with excellent, and I stress, EXCELLENT information both technical and not that is delivered in more of an article format that keeps your attention and provides a logical sequence to putting the pieces of the puzzle together. The photos are bright and beautiful. This may turn out to be the best book I bought to remodel my home.

69 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best green remodeling guide yet!, August 14, 2006

By 

Michael O'Brien "Mike" (Portland Oregon USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green House: Bringing Your Home into Harmony with Nature (Natural Home & Garden) (Paperback)

I've been working as the City of Portland's green building specialist for the past six years. In my work I talk to many homeowners, designers and contractors about green home remodeling. Almost all would like a resource that explains sustainable or green building clearly and provides useful guidance for making choices. From now on, this will be one of the books I recommend to them. The authors have succeeded in making a complex topic interesting and enjoyable to learn about. Whatever your goals, lifestyle or budget, you will find helpful ideas to achieve your green remodel.

Mike O'Brien

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beauty and the Best (Green Practices), August 28, 2006

By 

R. Howseman - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green House: Bringing Your Home into Harmony with Nature (Natural Home & Garden) (Paperback)

Books on remodeling have tended to take one of two tracks: aesthetics and harmony with lifestyle or environmentally sensitive and responsible. With this book, the authors have taken an important step in integrating what has been the somewhat esoteric field of green 'thinking' with mainstream remodeling. They enable us to recognize that these paths not only complement each other, but drawn together open an entirely new range of creative and spatial possibilities.

I like this book a lot. What really set it apart were the authors' broad knowledge of green building practices, eye for detail and sensitivity to clients' needs and budgets. Their passion for bringing the possibilities of green to the mainstream is evident through out the book, and contagious. Highly recommended.