House - Tracy Kidder

i'd rather have a root canal

This is obviously well written, but oh, what a bore! I HATE having to deal with contractors in real life. I don't want to read about the trials and tribulations of building a house. I appreciate the character development, but if this had been framed under a different topic, I would have finished it.

Please build me a house

I fell in love with these builders. I was so happy to see that Jim Locke did his own book and is apparently successful in his business. I just hope the others are too. There is so much slipshod work done these days - build it big, lots of fancy extras, lots of problems later.

Psycho-Drama of building

Unlike most others, I disliked this book. I tried to get through it twice, separated by a few years, but I give up.

I'd hoped that this would offer fresh insights to building, but it was simply a painful replay of the psycho-drama involved: who's going to take the risks, who's going to "win" in what is presented as a zero-sum game.

No wonder so many people end up hating their builders, and no wonder builders approach customers with distrust!

I'm a serial renovator and will soon be building from the ground up. I'd suggest that there IS another approach - it's called teamwork. Do the research and make the effort upfront and find a builder you can work with and trust. Keep them running a tight budget with multiple bids but be respectful of their risk too! It's possible to create an environment in which everyone wins: on projects this significant, it's worth working to create it.

New Homeowners Get Lucky

As a builder myself, I find that Kidder presents a fascinating picture about the process of building a house. I, like the builders in the book, always try to create something beautiful and lasting. All I can say is that the homeowners got lucky in finding builders that care so much despite the owners' pettiness. All too often, I am called in to repair a job in which the builder did not care or the owner was trying to "cheap out" or both. Most of the time you get what you pay for. In this case the owners got lucky to find true gentlemen who loved their craft. This is a book espousing that truly talented craftsmen are worth so much more than their weight in gold. A side note, Bill Rawns's architecture firm is now huge and well decorated, and Jim Locke, one of the builders, has written his own book called "A Well-Built House".

good read

If the Souweines were happy about their house, they probably weren't happy with this book. I got the feeling that Kidder set out to be totally impartial about all of the people in this book, but by the end, he was sick of the whiny Souweines, in the same way that the carpenters set out to do the absolute best work they could but finally just wanted to get er done.

i'd rather have a root canal

This is obviously well written, but oh, what a bore! I HATE having to deal with contractors in real life. I don't want to read about the trials and tribulations of building a house. I appreciate the character development, but if this had been framed under a different topic, I would have finished it.

Please build me a house

I fell in love with these builders. I was so happy to see that Jim Locke did his own book and is apparently successful in his business. I just hope the others are too. There is so much slipshod work done these days - build it big, lots of fancy extras, lots of problems later.

Psycho-Drama of building

Unlike most others, I disliked this book. I tried to get through it twice, separated by a few years, but I give up.

I'd hoped that this would offer fresh insights to building, but it was simply a painful replay of the psycho-drama involved: who's going to take the risks, who's going to "win" in what is presented as a zero-sum game.

No wonder so many people end up hating their builders, and no wonder builders approach customers with distrust!

I'm a serial renovator and will soon be building from the ground up. I'd suggest that there IS another approach - it's called teamwork. Do the research and make the effort upfront and find a builder you can work with and trust. Keep them running a tight budget with multiple bids but be respectful of their risk too! It's possible to create an environment in which everyone wins: on projects this significant, it's worth working to create it.

New Homeowners Get Lucky

As a builder myself, I find that Kidder presents a fascinating picture about the process of building a house. I, like the builders in the book, always try to create something beautiful and lasting. All I can say is that the homeowners got lucky in finding builders that care so much despite the owners' pettiness. All too often, I am called in to repair a job in which the builder did not care or the owner was trying to "cheap out" or both. Most of the time you get what you pay for. In this case the owners got lucky to find true gentlemen who loved their craft. This is a book espousing that truly talented craftsmen are worth so much more than their weight in gold. A side note, Bill Rawns's architecture firm is now huge and well decorated, and Jim Locke, one of the builders, has written his own book called "A Well-Built House".

good read

If the Souweines were happy about their house, they probably weren't happy with this book. I got the feeling that Kidder set out to be totally impartial about all of the people in this book, but by the end, he was sick of the whiny Souweines, in the same way that the carpenters set out to do the absolute best work they could but finally just wanted to get er done.