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62 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Video Review, April 5, 2010
This review is from: A Very Modest Cottage (Country Living) (Hardcover)
Length:: 2:22 Mins
This is a story about a love affair with a cottage, it's past and now future. This book would make a great gift for a first time homebuyer or anyone who loves to remodel/restore. Not only will you love the story & photos but the author also writes in detail about restoring and decorating a 1920's cottage - all while being true to the cottage's roots.
Enjoy, it's a very sweet story!
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50 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing, November 8, 2010
This review is from: A Very Modest Cottage (Country Living) (Hardcover)
When this book came along, I was thrilled. I loved the premise. It's always been a dream of mine to tackle the challenge of moving a building, especially an endangered one that could be renovated and restored. So I settled down to enjoy this memoir and vicariously share the experience of saving this cute little cottage.
Problem is, this isn't much of a book. Instead, it's a blog in tangible binding. It has the superficiality of a blog, and offers minimal content. As for that vicarious experience I was hoping for, or even some author insight ... well, consider this example: the owner has no direct involvement to share about the move. She was on a business trip in Prague that day, but LOOK! here's a picture of her brother, who did all that work for her. LOOK! here's the map of how far the cabin was moved from here to there.
Okay, I thought, she had to be away during the move, but the book will offer more on the reno and decorating end of things. Nope. She liked a color. She sketched a floor plan. She bought a curtain. LOOK! Here's a picture of her receipt.
Usually I can trust Country Living to publish books that are enjoyable and informative. This one is so shallow and bland that I've struggled to the halfway point. As a reader already very interested in the topic, I feel cheated. If I had wanted to look at someone's blog, then I would have scanned it online and clicked off.
But publishing it? What a waste of paper.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cabin of Dreams, April 9, 2010
This review is from: A Very Modest Cottage (Country Living) (Hardcover)
Did you ever have a favorite place when you were a kid? A place that was always there through the years, reassuring you that all was still right with the world as you grew from childhood to adolescence, to adulthood . . . Did you ever wish you could keep that place, just as you remembered it when you were a kid? This book is about how someone did just that.
First, in the interest of full disclosure, not only am I a coworker and friend of the author, I also contributed a very modest ingredient to this extremely palatable cornucopia of a book . . . and because of this I can attest to what a dedicated, focused worker the author is, making it no surprise that her sweat, toil and tenacity have produced such an appealing labor of love.
This is much more than just a handsomely presented coffee table book; it's also a love letter to a forgotten era, a warm and engaging scrapbook depicting the realization of a dream, and a lively, living journal documenting the adoption and rebirth of a charming roadside hotel cabin from Southern Illinois into an environment seemingly preordained for it in faraway Elkhorn, Wisconsin.
On top of the allure of the unique story, the author also possesses an inherent, professional flair for design that not only reveals itself in the absorbing visual presentation of the book (which she supervised), but also in the creatively chosen, period-appropriate accoutrements with which she has appointed both the cottage and its neighboring buildings in its new home, Camp Wandawega--well-represented in a copious array of rich photographs. She even gives us a vivid taste of what it's like to go along on one of her flea market flights of frugality by which she acquired some of the items that pepper these cordial surroundings. Her unassumingly witty writing style is equally engaging (this, I admit, was a pleasant surprise), perfectly complementing the arcadian images of Americana and intriguing antique tchotchkes which fill Modest Cottage's pages.
It's a feast for the senses and the imagination, with an accent on the visual, a book to keep on the proverbial coffee table for repeated browses as well as showing off to guests.
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