Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.).

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.

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.

Al Heavens and his contributors are refreshingly honest and funny about what can, and probably will, go awry with a home renovation. The enthusiasm one generates with a terrific renovation idea needs to be realistically tempered with solid "risk management" and the true stories do just that, without dampering excitement. Appreciated, too, are the observations about home improvement shows. Their purpose is to inspire and demonstrate, but often we forget that there is a large budget and team of experts on hand, something a home renovator is wise to remember.

Mr. Heavens certainly knows his stuff when it comes to how to make your house look nice! Look at the back cover of the book with Search Inside the Book, and Mr. Heaven's credentials are certainly worthy of one's trust. The really cool thing about Mr. Heavens, however, is that his knowledge does not just stop at home renovation but he is truly a polymath. With this book and this great writer, renovating one's house raises from the level of a fun skill to a true art form; but of course, as you are drawn into the art, you will also learn more fun tips than you can find anywhere else.

You will not regret buying this!

Valuable information throughout and fun to read. Gave me a better understanding of our chronically leaking roof and wet basement and practical help in resolving those problems. Loaded with information and advice on just about any concern a homeowner might have. So far I have purchased a total of five copies and have given away four of those to very appreciative friends. All agree it's a wonderful resource.

This book has proven invaluable in outlining the process from start to finish re: home remodeling. The author's humor and straight-shooting language makes the material easy to understand and read. My only wish is that he had made the chapter titles more descriptive to make finding specific info easier (use the index instead). Otherwise, I'd highly recommend this book to anyone facing a rehab, from novice to expert.

I read through a lot of the book when I bought it then chose certain chapters to re-read when I had my carport built. Without this book I don't think I would have gotten a lawyer to review the contract and I'm really glad I did. I tend to just trust what people tell me which is not always a good idea obviously. The book caused me to get very specific details written into the contract and to renegotiate some of the terms they said were their standard terms. I think I'll pull the book out again anytime I have work done on the house.

Honestly answer this question for yourself... Do you think your upcoming remodeling project is going to be executed according to the carefully laid plan that you've spent eons putting together?

If so, then I would recommend this book, it will help ease you into some of the realities of home remodeling. You will get the opportunity to read about people who planned, and budgeted, and then found that much of their work was for naught for a variety of reasons that you probably haven't thought about. But that doesn't mean it can't be fun, just be aware.

If, on the other hand, you realize that no matter how carefully you plan, the plan will be changed, and that no matter how much you make sure to budget for, the budget will be broken, then I would give this book a pass, unless you just want a good chuckle.

This book has some interesting stories, but there wasn't a lot of practical advice. Also, it isn't really pertinent unless you live on the East coast. We live in California and a remodel here is very different than what was covered in the book.