The Savvy Woman's Guide to Owning a Home: How to Care for, Improve and Maintain Your Home [Paperback]

Kitty Werner (Author), Werner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2001

In a light and humorous way, yet clear and detailed enough to be of real help, the book teaches the basics of home care, safety, and getting into a new community. It covers everything from moving into the new place, to seasonal and yearly "to do" lists, to dealing with a host of repairs.

The book is laid out in a sensible way and contains sidebars with lots of helpful hints and fun anecdotes. It's something I could easily see becoming a bible for the new homeowner, female or male, but is especially excellent for women because it avoids the jargon often used when such information is geared toward men.

KK Wilder, Producer, "Wild Spirit: The Writing Life"

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Finally, here's the book to fill the void for the first-time home buyer who has never had the opportunity or the need to take full responsibility for their home.

You are not an idiot if you don't know how to care for your own home, you are simply uninformed about it. There's a big difference.

The Savvy Woman's Guide to Owning a Home will help you become more conversant with your home's functions, how it works and what to expect, without taking up a lot of your valuable time.

From the Author

I noticed that there isn't one homeowner's manual for women who don't want to do-it-yourself, but do need to know how to run and maintain their house. Sure, there are plenty of books on how to fix things, but what about the people who aren't handy with tools? While millions of women own their own homes, what is the percentage of those who know how to maintain the house, much less fix it themselves? Or how about the women married to men who can't use a hammer? Or the homeowners who don't have the time to DIY?

Over the last 20 years, I've helped many of my friends with their homeowner problems—from giving advice to actually doing the job. It was time to write the book.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: RSBPress (September 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971035601
• ISBN-13: 978-0971035607
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,615,825 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I love taking things apart and learning about them. Apparently, I grew up doing just that--starting with my first doll and later my first watch. Dolls weren't a problem to fix, the watch was. Couldn't put that back together after I shot the mainspring somewhere in the rec room.

Our next challenge--building our own home, designed for us by Debra Coleman of Sun Plans. Maybe that's the next book...

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Savvy Woman's Guide to Moving and Calling Repairmen, September 8, 2005

By 

J. L.. "Jackie" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Savvy Woman's Guide to Owning a Home: How to Care for, Improve and Maintain Your Home (Paperback)

I am shocked by the good reviews this book is getting. I made this purchase thinking I'd learn how to "care for, improve and maintain" my home. Instead I found a bunch of non-specific reasons why I need to maintain my home and nothing about how to do so. What exactly are these reviewers referring back to? There is no information here that is complete enough to be useful. I am willing to bet that I never need to open this book again.

Anyone who has ever moved already knows most of the helpful hints contained in the first 1/3 of this book. We're talking about simple things like: change your address with the post office; find out how to get from your new house to your office; call the electric company and get the power turned on...

The real content is in middle third of the book. That's the section that's supposed to be about maintaining your home. Here's the gist: Houses have plumbing systems, call a plumber. Houses have electric systems, call an electrician. (Unless you want to change the color of your light switch, apparently as women we're all supposed to get giddy at the thought of light switches in different colors.) The repairs chapter is concentrated on which professionals to call in. Roof trouble requires a roofer... There are a whopping 2 paragraphs about doing repairs yourself. In these paragraphs Ms. Werner recommends purchasing a book about home maintenance!!! The seasonal and yearly checkup chapters are the only redeeming part of the whole book, although they are still lacking. These consist basically of a list of places to check for structural damage.

The final 1/3 of the book contains more generalized information that about emergency planning, picking schools for your kids and canceling your mail when you go on vacation. Again, this is not really relevant to home improvement, and is mostly targeted at people lacking common sense or people who have made long distance moves. This is followed up by a few pages about remodeling. Guess what: you're supposed to call a contractor to do you're remodeling.

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ideal Housewarming Gift, July 31, 2002

By 

Experienced seminar leader (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Savvy Woman's Guide to Owning a Home: How to Care for, Improve and Maintain Your Home (Paperback)

I devoured this book during my first week of home ownership and plan to read it again and again as I go through the first year of being responsible for the safe operation of many new appliances and appurtenances. Kitty Werner has written a comprehensive, easy-to-understand and even entertaining guide to all the things a house has that need to keep running for your comfort and safety. Her recommendations about fire extinguishers, chimneys, escape plans, routine maintenance and such are extremely valuable and eye-opening. She's done her utmost to keep the book relevant and useful whether you live in a city or out in the sticks. Thanks, Kitty!

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Perfect Book for any Homeowner, November 28, 2001

By 

J. Rogers Wolkomir - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Savvy Woman's Guide to Owning a Home: How to Care for, Improve and Maintain Your Home (Paperback)

This book is a godsend for people like me(and my husband)who live in a house, but don't really understand how it works. A house is like a small city. It provides you with water, heat, sewage disposal, shelter, warmth, and all that makes life cozy. But let something go wrong--then you can get desperate. Author Kitty Werner knows just what that's like. She talks about everything from packing up your valuables before you move to insurance (house replacement coverage, etc.), plumbing, electrical systems, repairs, dealing with pesky things, like ants and roaches, and coping with emergencies. She has chapters on such matters as finding a contractor (her father is a retired contractor) and being part of a neighborhood. And she writes about all this in a lively tone--it's as if you are having a personal conversation with the author. I rate this book very highly.