The Builder's Secret: Learning the Art of Living Through the Craft of Building - Hardcover

Ehrenhaft, George

9780761516071: The Builder's Secret: Learning the Art of Living Through the Craft of Building

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0761516077 ISBN 13: 9780761516071

Publisher: Prima Lifestyles, 1999

Monday to Friday, they teach school, practice law, push paper, pound a keyboard, or run a company. But they start their weekends with a trip to the nearest home-improvement center. They're owner-builders, men and women just like you who know the satisfaction of doing it themselves—of adding a deck, remodeling the den, or building a dream house from the ground up.
The Builder's Secret will introduce you to some owner-builders who've renounced ordinary weekend pleasures in favor of lengthy, backbreaking—but ultimately exhilarating—home-building projects. Inside, you'll meet a Connecticut architect and his "city-girl" wife who lived in a tent for a year while constructing their dream house, a flutist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra who began renovating commercial real estate in his spare time when his country home neared completion, and a divorced mother of three who says that she built more than her house during those two years on the job—she rebuilt her life, too. You'll meet others whose stories will inspire you to start that dream project of your own.
A few of these owner-builders learned to build during childhood, others didn't pick up a hammer until they were grown. But all discovered that the highest reward of building was not what they got for their toil but what they became by it.
"This chronicle of owner-builders is really a 'why-to' manual, revealing how tremendously satisfying it can be to sleep beneath a roof that you built yourself."—Kevin Ireton, editor of Fine Homebuilding magazine
"Building your own house is both frustrating and rewarding by turns. You will enjoy the stories chronicled in The Builder's Secret—they have the whiff of sawdust and reality."—Witold Rybczynski, professor of architecture, McGill University
"Gives all those who have ever dreamed of building their own house valuable insights into the physical and spiritual process. This book reveals that the satisfaction of achieving one of life's basic goals—creating your own shelter—is within the reach of anyone."—Will Beemer, director of The Heartwood School

Read an interview with the author ////////here.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

In the world of building and how-to books, an occasional and rare thing happens: a book appears that goes beyond the hardware and advice and offers a deeper insight into what really motivates people to build, fix, and create things, and begins a conversation about what such endeavors mean to ordinary people who are drawn to and realize "do-it-yourself" lives. George Ehrenhaft has written what could only be called an affectionate book about a group of owner-builders around the country and their true tales, often in their own words, about not only what they have done and how, but also why they did it in the first place. There are stories of serious builders and weekend hobbyists--connected on an almost spiritual level by the desire to make or keep a roof over their heads--and their willingness to jump, inexperienced, into projects and learn by doing, learn by making mistakes, learn from friends, professionals, and books, from blood, sweat, toil, and tears, and finally by success itself.

You'll meet, among others, the Connecticut architect and his "city-girl" wife who lived in a tent for a year while building their dream home, a flutist for the Boston Symphony who renovates commercial real estate in his spare time, and a divorced mother of three who rebuilt her life as she built her home. Their experiences, insights, observations, and perspectives are revealing and moving. Ehrenhaft's exploration is inspirational, laugh-out-loud funny in places, touching, and simply a great read as a study of a fascinating group of dedicated "weekend builders." This book is a rare gem, written in a warm, articulate, and absorbing style, a great gift for any do-it-yourselfer who also loves to read; also, for that matter, for anyone at all who enjoys a good story about human inspiration and the creative urge. --Mark A. Hetts

About the Author:

George Ehrenhaft is both an engaging writer and a tireless builder, having built the equivalent of two-and-a-half houses by himself. The author of nine books, he lives in Katonah, New York.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.