The House That Jill Built: A Woman's Guide To Home Building - Softcover

Ostrow, Judy; Leffler, Karen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1586854593 ISBN 13: 9781586854591

Publisher: Gibbs Smith, 2005

Synopsis

A groundbreaking primer for do-it-yourselfers offers a woman's perspective on design and construction, with before and after photos, expert advice, tool guides, and stories of women's real-life experiences in building. Original.

About this title

About the Authors

Judy Ostrow is an independent journalist whose articles about home building, renovation, and sustainable residential design have been published in magazines such as This Old House, Home, and Natural Home. She is the author of Painting Rooms, and coauthor of two additional volumes about interior painting. A do-it-herselfer in training, Judy acted as general contractor for numerous projects at her family's homes in Westchester County, New York, and on the coast of Maine. She renovated her New York kitchen while writing this book.

Karen Leffler began her career in architectural photography in northern California, where she also designed and built three houses. Karen lives in Fairfield County, Connecticut.

From the Back Cover

If you could, if you knew how, what would a house that you build for yourself look like? How would it feel?
Millions of women already have a hands-on attitude toward the places they call home. They are buying their own tools, and learning the basics of do-it-herself. And every day, out of curiosity, or just plain necessity, women are learning that home improvement is not just for guys.
Now, The House That Jill Built takes the handywoman in all of us one giant step forward.
This groundbreaking guide shares the process of creating a personal dream house, through the eyes and experiences of women who have been there, and done that-making a design, acting as contractor, doing their own construction. It shows the way for any woman who longs to unlock the mysteries of home making-of the lumber and sheetrock variety-and provides solid advice to help her tackle big projects on her own.
So, please pass the hammer, Jack. It's Jill's turn.
The House That Jill Built will help build houses for women and their families. A portion of the author's royalties has been pledged to the Women Build program of Habitat for Humanity International.

From the Inside Flap

In the lexicon of home, no experience is so mind-and-body wrenching, or so ultimately fulfilling, as the design and building of a house. The House That Jill Built is the first book to offer an inside look at the process, exclusively from a woman's perspective. It's a whole new take on "home making."From the woman who's just getting started with tools, to the experienced do-it-herselfer who's ready for something more, this book shares women's real-life experiences with creating their own dream homes-in their own words, with snapshots, drawings and beautiful photographs of the finished products.Filled with a comprehensive how-to section, advice from femaile homebuilders and building professionals and a unique tool-buying guide, The House That Jill Built is a great companion for women who want to turn their dreams into the picture-perfect home.Judy Ostrow is an independent journalist. Her articles about home building, renovation and interiors, as well as sustainable residential design, have been published in such national magazines as This Old House, Home, and Natural Home. She is the author of Painting Rooms (Rockport, 2001), and co-author of two additional volumes about interior painting.A do-it-herselfer in training, Judy has acted as general contractor for numerous projects at her family's homes in Westchester County, New York, and on the coast of Maine. She renovated her New York kitchen while writing this book.Karen Leffler began her career in architectural photography in Northern California, where she also designed and built three houses. This is her first book. Karen lives in Fairfield County, Connecticut.A portion of the author's royalties has been pledged to the Women Build program of Habitat for Humanity International.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"Building a house is something like psychoanalysis. You don't know what emotions will float to the surface, or what memories will be stirred up, and you do learn about yourself!"-Lisa Hawkins

The inspiration for this book came from many places. A personal longing for competence with tools,and a lifelong love of houses were its genesis. Then, a workshop about designing and building one's own home-where I found myself in a classroom, surrounded by a dozen other women with the same interest-popped the book's title out of the universe of inspiration and into my mind on the drive home. I just had to run with it.

I found myself up late at night, searching on the Internet for leads-women who'd already built their houses, who were willing to share the experience. I told everybody about my idea; some who took it seriously gave me names and numbers. Gradually, I found the wonderful people whose work is chronicled in these pages. As we conversed, in face-to-face meetings, by phone and e-mail, I grew to understand something important.

So many home design books concern themselves exclusively with the destination-the end product, the finished home-a picture-perfect haven. Far fewer document the journey-that long process between inspiration and pillow fluffing that constitutes the growth, learning, and self-affirmation that come from a project so large, one that is still thought of as non-traditional for women. I decided to make this book an exception.

Edition details

• Publisher: Gibbs Smith
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1586854593
• ISBN 13: 9781586854591
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 166