Sheetrock & Shellac: A Thinking Person's Guide to the Art and Science of Home Improvement [Paperback]

David Owen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 19, 2007

David Owen, author of The Walls Around Us, recounts his projects -- from catching the home improvement bug while watching workmen replacing a leaky roof to his first tentative foray into DIY. As his skill grows, so does his confidence: replacing a broken light switch turns into wiring an entire room, making bookcases is followed by building an office. Soon he takes the big leap from renovation to building a new house -- a weekend cabin a mere six miles from his home -- from the ground up. The experience launches Owen's enthralling and hilarious discourse on everything from kitchen countertop materials to the complete history of concrete and a near disastrous mishap involving a tree, a roof, and a chainsaw.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Owen, a New Yorker staff writer, takes the middle road here, offering neither a brass-tacks guide to renovation nor an acute introspective account of the endless remodeling of his home. Instead, he ping-pongs between describing the incomplete minutiae of many projects in his rambling 200-year-old Connecticut house, walking staccato-step through the building of a cabin some 10 miles away and diving into the history of such things as kitchen surfaces, window glazes and shellac. He presumes readers have followed his various projects as he's written about them over the years. Those who haven't can indeed still follow, though they might feel they are eavesdropping on someone else's conversation. Owen writes that home improvement is "an ongoing relationship between a dwelling and its dwellers, and when it's done right it doesn't end." When he finishes something he sees only what he did wrong, so prefers to "leave a few ends dangling," which provides only limited insight into the nature of human domesticity or creativity. Owen will not connect with the many home renovators who, no matter how pleasurable the process nor satisfying the outcome, want to finish something they started. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Prolific author and New Yorker staff writer Owen approaches the age-old "how do I do it myself" question uniquely. Instead of step-by-step directions for, say, cutting down a tree or erecting wallboard, he first traces his beginnings as a DIYer--in his case, creating a second bedroom out of a 750-square-foot Manhattan apartment--which leads to his Connecticut home ownership, and the soon-to-be-fulfilled yen to build a ground-up cabin. So, this home-improvement odyssey (or, as one of his friends notes, "If I'd known I could afford to spend this much on a house, I'd have bought a nice one to begin with") tackles each room; the kitchen, for instance, includes detailed word sketches of the preparation process as well as riffs on the more than $15,000 Aga cookers and countertop alternatives. (Formica, by the way, is the most popular material.) Other meanderings are just as riveting: his musings on the beauties of wire screening lead him to the efficacies of "adhesive pest management" from the Tanglefoot Company and, eventually, to borate solutions that wipe out wood-boring beetles naturally. Charming and edifying, regardless of the reader's DIY proficiencies. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (June 19, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743251202
• ISBN-13: 978-0743251204
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,629,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Owen is a staff writer for The New Yorker and a contributing editor of Golf Digest, and he is the author of a dozen books. He lives in northwest Connecticut with his wife, the writer Ann Hodgman. Learn more at www.davidowen.net.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Should be titled: Interesting and Beautifully Written, July 14, 2006

By 

RdeVDR "born skeptic" (FL, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sheetrock & Shellac: A Thinking Person's Guide to the Art and Science of Home Improvement (Hardcover)

I have been a DIYer for 25 years and found nearly every page of Owen's book engaging. Too, I learned a tremendous amount, a bonus I frankly wasn't expecting. Owen is a gifted writer who understands the poetry of things, and I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves home improvement or who wants to understand how the structures we live in work.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Smart and funny building and home repair, August 13, 2008

By 

Kristy K. Dyer "Spark" (Albuquerque) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sheetrock & Shellac: A Thinking Person's Guide to the Art and Science of Home Improvement (Hardcover)

While The Walls Around Us: The Thinking Person's Guide to How a House Works is a better book (sequels are so hard) Sheetrock is another funny, idiosyncratic approach to home-owning, designing a house, and getting a bulldozer stuck in the mud. Owen, like me and many people, has more interest than experience in working on his house and his random walk through how things are made is entertaining. Sheetrock lacks the zing of his initial jump from NYC apartment to small town historic home, but I'll look forward to installment three of his home-learning saga.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Owen Makes You Want to Do It, August 21, 2006

By 

The Ranger (Santa Fe, New Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sheetrock & Shellac: A Thinking Person's Guide to the Art and Science of Home Improvement (Hardcover)

Geesh, by the time I was midway through this I was ready to renovate my bathroom on my own until I came to my senses. Still, this is an engaging, informative, and witty book full of exquisite writing. I loved it.