Customer Reviews

Rustic Retreats: A Build-It-Yourself Guide

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Straightforward instructions and beautiful, informative drawings will help you build dozens of great back-country shelters. Designs include sheds, arbors, lean-tos, huts, cabins, tree houses and even a design for a floating cabin.

These are true rustic retreats for adults. Just know this is not for children's tree houses or play houses. These are very rustic retreats, such as a lean-to to use as a nature retreat, or for the shack-like building the size of a garden shed for sleeping in as a weekend getaway,(sans electricity or toilets).

The one I loved the most was a rustic arbor for grapevines that was basically 4 poles with a semi-roof--for the vines to grow up and over the top to form a roof. The idea of sitting under it with a table and relaxing outdoors was quite tempting. However, where I would get the rustic tree trunks to make this is beyond me (but it looked wonderful).

There are no photographs. This is not a glitzy-beautiful tempting type of book. It is about the nuts and bolts of really building one of these structures. I suggest browsing this book first to see if there is a structure you are interested in.

The plans are quite detailed and seem more than adequate to use as building plans.

We have enjoyed all the Stileses garden house/project books and consulted "Sheds" when we were planning our own shed. We especially appreciated the step by step instructions and clear drawings. We were still deliberating over plans when we saw "Rustic Retreats" in a book club ad and we ran all over greater Seattle looking for it. We must have bought the first copy in Washington. We proceeded to build the cover garden house in the fall of '98, finishing the shingles this summer. It was originally intended to be a storage shed but was so wonderful that we added chairs and a bed. It was our first building project and what a treat!

This is a good book overall and goes into enough detail. The drawing are all hand drawn and there are ZERO photo's of the different projects. This is disappointing as it is much easier to envision what the final cabin etc.. would look like if there were photos.

the drawings in this text are very detailed yet artful. the prose is kept simple without much extra unnecessary information. the authors leave ample room to improvise on your own, but you could certainly follow the instructions to the letter and finish up with just what is described. the designs in this book are so varied you will very likely find a structure that appeals to you. apart from the designs, the building techniques and materials described are so varied, that many can be interchanged for most of the structures described. i found myself flipping back and forth and was inspired to use elements of multiple designs in just one structure. a very well done and handsome book!

Perfect for my husband and I to build together. We really enjoyed building projects out of this book, I have no carpentry experience prior to this book, and my husband limited, and I am proud to say, this took us right through it, step by step.

We used this book as a guide and built ourselves a terrific weekend getaway. We would recommend it to almost anyone who had an interest in building and who wanted an inexpensive weekend retreat.

Not only interesting to read, but the drawings make the projects easy to follow while keeping the writing clear and concise without any extraneous information. This terrific book has inspired me to find the perfect piece of land to build my own little vacation getaway.

For anyone with space enough, but without the money to build on it, this book has so many answers. It has line drawings on almost every page and is pure delight to read and dream over.

I'm glad there are no photos in this book. Get an imagination! The drawings are fun and lively. They also give important aspects of the project that a photo rarely illustrates. Now I know how (in detail) to construct a tipi, or put together a simple door or roof that really would hold up to nature. The primitive shelters section is great. So are the tree houses. Not that all of these projects are practical homes, but now I have ideas for that "fort" in the back acre my kids are bugging me about. Thanks for a great book to just read, or get us outside with a saw and hammer.