What Your Contractor Can't Tell You: The Essential Guide to Building and Renovating |  | Author: Amy Johnston
Publisher: Shube Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $12.98
as of 9/5/2010 17:10 CDT details
You Save: $6.97 (35%)
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Seller: pbshop
Rating:  33 reviews
Sales Rank: 5712
Media: Paperback
Pages: 224
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 10.7 x 6.9 x 0.7
ISBN: 0979983800
Dewey Decimal Number: 690
EAN: 9780979983801
ASIN: 0979983800
Publication Date: January 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9780979983801 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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Product Description
What Your Contractor Can't Tell You is a comprehensive guide to getting the best results while building or renovating a home. Most homeowners spend about 20% of their time on the plan and 80% of their time on a messy, traumatic, expensive construction phase. Pros spend 80% of their time on the plan and 20% on a smooth construction phase. But the homeowners can't know what goes into a solid plan unless someone tells them. This book is based on a simple premise...if homeowners knew even 10% of what the professionals in the construction field know, they could avoid 90% of the problems. Creating a dream home shouldn't be a nightmare. Hiring a contractor is an enormous investment and a high-risk endeavor involving decisions that will last forever. This book equips homeowners with the information and strategies needed to turn their vision into a home or a renovation that can be built on time and within budget. Chapters give detailed coverage of critical topics: design; selecting and supervising the architect and contractor; cost estimates; budget; plan specifications; contracts; dealing with town officials; and keeping track of everything along the way. For each stage of the project, there is detailed information on common pitfalls and how to avoid them, as well as insiders' tips which reveal what most contractors can't tell you. This book was previously published by Warner Books (2004) and titled What the "Experts" May Not Tell You About Building or Renovating Your Home.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 33
Good money-saving advice on your most expensive purchase August 9, 2005
D. Gage Andrews (Arizona, USA)
89 out of 90 found this review helpful
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.
Useful detailed practical information for building a home February 6, 2007
Boraxo (San Francisco, CA United States)
46 out of 46 found this review helpful
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.
Excellent read and reference June 5, 2006
greenie227 (Glenview, IL)
37 out of 37 found this review helpful
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.
Confidence on my bookshelf January 24, 2006
Inexperienced Homebuilder (Middlebury, VT)
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
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...
Money Well Spent December 12, 2005
Missouri Attorney
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
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!!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 33
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