What No One Ever Tells You About Renovating Your Home: Real-Life Advice for Hassle-Free, Cost-Effective Remodeling [Paperback]

Alan Heavens (Author)

Book Description

Series: What No One Ever Tells You About... | Publication Date: March 1, 2005

Read This Book Before You Remodel! It’s no surprise that home remodeling remains hot. Home improvement centers are often packed with do-it-yourselfers and contractors preparing to do everything from modernizing an outdated kitchen or fixing up and "flipping" a property for a profit. Unfortunately, many homeowners find out that once they begin a remodeling project, they need aspirin to deal with all the headaches and hassles that can occur. In What No One Ever Tells You about Renovating Your Home, real estate columnist Alan J. Heavens brings 15 years worth of letters, e-mails, and phone calls from homeowners just like you to help you learn from the remodeling mistakes of others. Whether you’re a homeowner, real estate investor, or home improvement enthusiast, Heavens’ practical advice will teach you: • Sure-fire ways to find the best contractor • Tips to control your remodeling budget and schedule from start to finish • Making the most of your existing space • Projects that pay

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Any homeowner... should read this outstanding book before putting on a tool belt or talking with a contractor." -- Bob Bruss, Nationally Syndicated Columnist

"The very readable real-life advisory for hassle free, and cost-effective remodeling covers every aspect of the process" -- -- American Homeowners Association

About the Author

Alan J. Heavens has been writing about real estate and home improvement for the last 17 years. Heavens is the real estate and home improvement writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, for which his column “On the House” appears Sundays in Real Estate, and his features “Cheat Sheet” and “Your Place” appear on alternate Fridays in Home and Design.

Heavens is the author of What No One Ever Tells You About Renovating Your Home (Kaplan Publishing, 2005); president of the National Association of Real Estate Editors; an instructor at the Temple Real Estate Institute; and a speaker at professional meetings on public relations and multimedia. His writing appears in various magazines and other publications, including Popular Science, Consumers Digest, Urban Land, and National Real Estate Investor.

A veteran of 40 years as a reporter, he holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in history. He has restored two older houses and is working on his third.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Kaplan Publishing (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1419501577
• ISBN-13: 978-1419501579
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,822,879 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Anecdotal, rather than concrete, June 10, 2006

By 

greenie227 (Glenview, IL) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: What No One Ever Tells You About Renovating Your Home: Real-Life Advice for Hassle-Free, Cost-Effective Remodeling (Paperback)

A nice enough book, as a book to read before you read a practical book about renovating your home. The anecdotes are interesting to read, but I came away from the book with little to go on for my own upcoming renovation. This is not a book I highlighted, or where I turned corners down. A much better book, with practical help in the renovation process, is "What the Experts May Not Tell You about Building or Renovating Your Home". Similar titles, but while "What No One Ever Tells You" is full of anecdotes, "What the Experts May Not Tell You" is full of concrete and practical, step by step processes for handling renovation as an owner, including insights into relationships between the parties (owner, contractor, architect, inspectors, lenders, etc.).

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't Waste Your Time or Money, June 22, 2005

By 

Gwendolyn DaShiell (SAN DIEGO, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: What No One Ever Tells You About Renovating Your Home: Real-Life Advice for Hassle-Free, Cost-Effective Remodeling (Paperback)

If your looking for practical advise on renovating, this isn't it. It's full of antedotal stories of renovations gone wrong and right, but isn't a guide to renovating...more like a book of short stories. By the end of it you'll know more about the writer and his family and friends than you will about renovating. A waste of time.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read This Before You Get Started, May 29, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What No One Ever Tells You About Renovating Your Home: Real-Life Advice for Hassle-Free, Cost-Effective Remodeling (Paperback)

There's an old saying that two home remodelings is about equivalent to a divorce. Having been through both, that's not a bad saying. And this book will give some idea of the things you can expect to happen during remodelling.

This is not a book on how to remodel. It's a book about when, where and what to remodel. It's about permits and contractors. It's about what a remodel will gain you when you sell the house. It's about the real world, not the world you see on the remodelling shows on television. It's about what you can do yourself, and what you want to get done (unless of course you're an expert).

This is not a big book, and it isn't expensive. Before you even think about getting started on the big project buy it and read it carefully.