Customer Reviews

On a Street Called Easy, in a Cottage Called Joye

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

 

 

ON A STREET CALLED EASY,IN A COTTAGE CALLED JOYE BY GREGORY WHITE SMITH AND STEVEN NAIFEH IS A VERY ENTERTAING HUMOROUS TALE OF THE ADVENTURES OF RESTORING A PROPERTY IN AIKEN ,S.C. THE HISTOTY OF THE PROPERTY IS INTERWOVEN WITH THE DETAILS OF THE ADVENTURES AND MISADVENTURES OF THE RESTORATION. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK.IT MAKES YOU LAUGH OUT LOUD..NOT ALWAYS EASY IN THESE TIMES. IT IS TRUELY A JOYE TO READ!!!!

"On A Street Called Easy, in a Cottage called Joye" is an easy and entertaining read, with short chapters perfect for the ride on the subway, or a break between tasks. A close parallel to "A Year In Provence", which is referenced by the authors, the story is essentially a humorous take on the gentry's lament "you can't get good help these days", but the biggest difference is that while "A Year..." is heavily slanted towards food, "A Street..." is almost entirely about the travails of renovating a wreck. It is after all, set in the deep (if it ain't fried, it ain't cooked)south, this is NOT Provence.
The "true" story follows its two, pullitzer prize winning authors as they leave their dark, viewless, Manhattan condo and set out for Aiken, S.C., where they've bought(for quite a bit less than the original million+ asking price) a sixty room mansion built in 1897 by WC Whitney, as the gilded age began to flicker to a close. Through neglect, the house is an absolute mess. The crew hired to bring it back to its glory is pretty much a mess as well. From the holdover-joint-toking hippie that makes off with the only, working-order copper piping to sell for scrap, to the tile man who wants to be paid for time he'd requested to hang out (doing nothing)while the tile arrived, to the maid who spends all day dusting 3 rooms, only to be discovered sleeping whenever the bosses are away. You can't leave this crew a for a second, as they discover towards the end, in a scene that will leave wine lovers heart broken. The problem is, as with "A year in Provence", the owners seem to have a bottomless pocketbook, and always seem to have a check to write to cover whatever goes wrong. And EVERYTHING goes wrong. This eventually takes away from the believability, especially when combined with the patience of Job that the two men seem to display, endlessly, towards what are essentially ne'er do wells and lowlifes posing as contractors. Ah, well. You do learn a bit about the Whitneys, the house in its better days, Aiken in its better days, and the more recent days. All in all a worthwhile read.

I grew up in Aiken, S.C. and this book is a wonderful snapshot of part of that town's interesting history. My father was a butler to one of the "Winter Colony" residents which are mentioned in the book. He liked the place so much he decided to retire there. The book is a fun read and gives an overview of most of the different strata which make it a unique place: the old time residents who go back for decades; the "Winter Colony" people (many of whose children and grand children still live there); the engineers, scientists and other professionals who inundated the town in 1955; Blacks; local workers. There is not much mention of Aiken's middle class--reading the book you might think everyone was either very rich, a redneck or a Black servant. But this is not a sociological study but a memoir of the authors' efforts to resuscitate a dilapidaded old mansion. Anyone has done any kind of major remodel on their house will find find their own problems here, writ hilariously large.

It was August, 1999. After a tough year of renovation my husband and I moved into our own 5,800 sf "Money Pit". We had spent a total of $ 600,000 getting ready for this day. It had been our dream ever since we had completed a renovation of our 1800 sf cottage 12 years before. We had battled bad heating guys, windows that had arrived to fit seemingly another house, workers who preferred smoking in our driveway to actually doing any work, painters who peed in my bathtub and nasty neighbors.

But now we had moved in. We had no countertops as the machinery to put an edge on them had broken. So we did dishes, washed up and brushed our teeth in the one working bathtub. Boxes covered the first floor. The cracks in the wood floors gave me all-world blisters. And the air conditioning STILL did not work.

My husband, after spending less than an hour at home stood and looked up at me up the grand staircase and told me in a calm voice, "I don't want to BE here anymore" and went back to his office. I looked over the house...a decade of work left to do and our life savings committed to it and could only bring myself to do a tiny job that felt achievable; sorting his socks. Even that was difficult as I burst into sight-busting tears.

At that very moment there was a knock at the door. An old friend from down the street handed me this book and gave me a hug. I went to bed with it and over the next week I worked at making the house more comfortable when I felt up to it and reading the book when I didn't. It saved my sanity that hot August.

Three years later I watched my neighbor...distraught and crying on the tailgate of his truck over home renovation issues of his own and passed this life-ring along.

Thanks so much to the authors!!

I would encourage anyone who has ever renovated, built or are considering doing so to read this very funny book. I literally laughed till I cried at times. We are sure that we have had to deal with some of the same "contactors" that they write of and we are amazed that they can make such nightmares so funny.. We will buy this for every friend who is taking on the great adventure of renovation.

Received this as a housewarming present at beginning of a house renovation. It gave me plenty of hope and amusement.

Great Book. Hilarious read if you have an interest in renovation or old houses. One of my favorites.

This book is so funny, I have read it three times and find something different every time. It keeps the reader laughing!

What a great book! I laughed and laughed and was sad when I had finished the last page. Fast delivery and wonderful condition too!

This is one of the best books I've ever read - and I'm a fiction reader. I was thrilled to be awed by this nonfiction accounting of restoring a beautiful home in a small Southern town. It's a must-read for all South Carolinians!