Customer Reviews

What The Experts May Not Tell You About Building or Renovating Your Home

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I am looking to build my own home on a nice suburban lot in an existing neighborhood (replacing a teardown) and have purchased half a dozen books from Amazon in hopes of learning how to start the process from scratch. This is by far the most informative useful book of the lot.

It contains detailed information on how to go about hiring an architect and contractor, selecting materials, etc. along with choices that will save money or upgrade your home. It explains the differences between materials and provides tips on how to make sure you get what you put in your plans. It is written for someone like myself, an ordinary joe who has zero experience in design, building or construction. But unlike the awful Dummies book, this one contains useful information and tips for avoiding problems.

If you only buy one book on building your own home this should be the one.

Designing and building a new home is intimidating for three reasons (1) It is something with which you are not familiar; (2) you are not likely to have many friends who have done it; and (3) it is VERY expensive. Worse, you feel responsible for every mistake made, and you know that each mistakes cost you money and time. Buying this book is NOT one of those mistakes. Instead, it is the "ounce of prevention" that will pay for itself many hundreds of times over.

Amy Johnston is a professional construction manager and owner's representative. Her wisdom focuses with framing the entire construction project in terms of a tradeoff between time, quality, and money - you can only have two of the three. We're only part way through our new house, and that rings very, very true. We clearly opted for taking a longer time - will we keep that focus as construction progresses? In any case, she gives the insights into each part of the triangle. Better yet, she is fair - she makes sure that neither you, nor anyone else, is getting cheated. Contractors, architects, bankers, inspectors, and everyone else are clearly defined in their roles - though the most important role is the home owner's, which she describes in great detail.

Every chapter is focused on another phase of the project, and her clear writing opens up the mysteries along the way. She describes who is doing what (or should be doing it), and describes what choices need to made - and what the alternatives are - before saying what her choice is.

Her points are illustrated with good references, pertinent anecdotes, and points that she labels "Insider's tips" and "pitfalls". I was pleased to find that I had miraculously avoided some pitfalls before I bought the book, and I expect to avoid many others as a reuslt of her advice.

I was trying to figure out if this book could be described a "home construction for dummies" book. My initial reactiion was that dummies shouldn't be building a house - there are too many choices and decisions, and way too much complexity. But anyone can feel like a dummy when they make a bad decision, based on not enough knowledge and information. With this book, I have far more confidence that I will be well informed, and the problems that will inevitably occur will be minimzed as much as possible. I refer to the book constantly, and appreciate the wide margins that allows for notes to be made.

This book is excellent for those new to building or renovating and need to know what to do and say and who to say and do it to. The author does an excellent job setting out the relationships, processes, chronologies, and thinking for dealing with other parties all the way from dreaming about doing a remodel/build to finishing it. This is exactly the book I was looking for -- not a technical manual about building, but a handy reference about my role as owner and how I can or should interact with the architect, lender, general contractor, etc. to get the home or addition I want.

Ms. Johnston's book is an easy and enjoyable read chock full of sound advice. I purchased the book a year ago, one month before my husband and I began to interview architects for our project, building a new home 1000 miles away. After one quick read, I knew it was my "organized builder's guide for all non-builders". By using the suggestions found in the step-by-step approach we have now successfully survived the design phase, bid and builder selection process, contract negotiation, and the permitting phase. The knowledge we have gained from this book has provided us with confidence and there have been a few times already that we have impressed the industry professionals!

It pays to be prepared and Ms. Johnston's book is a very big bargain when considering renovation and new construction costs. We have miles to go before our house is complete, but along the way I expect that we'll refer to this book time and time again...

As an attorney, I regularly see people who didn't go into contract deals as carefully as they should have. As someone about to build my own home, I read this book to make sure I was doing everything correctly since I knew enough to know that there was plenty I didn't know about contracting, building etc.

This book is fantastic! Even if you're an attorney, you need this book. It provides valuable insight into specific subjects you would never know about unless you'd done these types of projects many times. I can't recommend it highly enough!!

Amy's book is wonderful. We received it when we were about to undertake a huge three story addition. Reading this book helped us to think outside the box and ultimately opt to renovate an existing porch. We ended up doing most of the work ourselves but chose to hire out the things we don't like and are not good at (sheet rocking). This book has many helpful details that have positively impacted our renovation. Amy articulates that most standard trim on houses is too small and therefore looks bad. We took her advice and used wider trim, it makes a huge difference. Our new windows look really balanced with the wide trim. I would recommend this book to anyone undertaking renovations. I learned so much.

It did not meet all my needs I was really looking for something to help me write building specificatins to send out for quotes from contractors) but I was blown away by the amount of valuable information I found in this book. I knew there were a lot of decisions to make when undertaking a major remodel like the one we are doing but my original estimations were off by about about 1000%. This book I think helped me get my expectations in line with reality. Especially when dealing with contractors.
I dog-eared about 50 or more pages...

As for writing specs check out "A complete guide to Contracting your home" by Mcguerty and Lester.

If you're thinking of renovating any part of your home or building a house, you can save yourself aggravation, time and money by following Amy Johnston's advice. I read her book, followed her advice and my kitchen renovation came in on time, under budget with not one major problem. Everything worked like clock-work, even though I was my own general contractor and I had never done anything like this before. As an added bonus, Amy Johnston's book is witty, funny and easy to read.

As a building professional (licensed general contractor since 1991), I think that this book by Amy Johnston is an excellent resource in preparing a person to undertake a building project. The book is chock full of practical, insightful information that gives consumers a 'peek behind the curtain' of building contractors, as well as the building process in general.

Over the years, I have heard of many construction horror stories and am dismayed to see builders with great marketing but little integrity continue to do project after project. If more consumers would take the time and effort to educate themselves about the building process, there would be far less 'money pit' experiences on building projects. This book makes it easy to be an informed consumer.

First of all, I couldn't put the book down.
I'm planning to build a house in the near future and, frankly, hadn't a clue as to how to begin. Not now. I have a blueprint in the form of a book which explains in a step-by-step manner how to go about getting the right people, information and materials to do the job. I continue to re-read the book as I progress and even bought a second copy for my wife (mine is dog-eared and full of notes).
If you are planning to build or do a renovation of an existing house, the first step is to get this book!