Have you ever dreamt about building your own home? This is a dream that thousands of Americans share, but the task itself can seem pretty daunting. Where do you begin and how on earth do you get the roof to stand up? George Nash answers all of these questions in his book, The Complete House Building Book. This is a must read for anyone interested in learning more about how homes are built or for those that may want to try to tackle this project on their own some day.

By keeping everything very simple and using incredibly detailed graphics, Nash literally walks the reader, step-by-step, through everything they will need to do to build their own home. Before we go any further, it is important to note that the book is geared towards those interested in building a frame home, as it does not cover other construction methods. You’re not going to find how-tos on fancy architectural elements here – just your standard home. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it is important to state the audience that this book is geared for.

All of that aside, this 704 page book has more than 1800 illustrations that clearly detail what you need to have and what you need to do to build a frame house. Although the pictures are in black and white, they are very well done and most are very clear. You will find a few that are in poor contrast, but that is most likely the fault of the publisher and not the author, so we really couldn’t find any fault in that.

Literally every aspect of building a home is covered here, from the initial stages of picking the right site, to making your own plan, to put the finishing touches on your landscaping, this is really the end all and be all of house building books. So many focus on only one area, but we were very happy to see that this was really a comprehensive guide.

This book is so useful that even carpenters take it along with them to job sites. You’ll learn how to frame out the house, build complex staircases as well as handling mistakes. We really appreciated the photos that detailed common errors as well as the advice on how to avoid those errors.

Overall, if you are looking to build your own frame house or if this is a dream you’d like to know more about, we highly recommend this book. It’s earned its place on the bookshelf of any builder or want-to-be builder and it is one that you will likely turn to again and again. We’ve got nothing but praise for this well written and informative book. Not only did it make it sound easy to build your own home, we found that it was very inspiring. People all over the United States have already put this book to good use, and we have to admit, we’re seriously considering building our own house now.

Originally posted 2008-12-07 09:10:48. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Related Posts

• Home Repair Almanac By Edward Lipinski Regular maintenance is vital for any homeowner, especially if you want to reduce your chances for having a major problem down the road. But for first time homeowners, or even homeowners that have been down the road before, it’s tough to know when to schedule all of those little maintenance......
• Review: Green Design: A Healthy Home Handbook by Alan Berman This latest book by author and architect Alan Berman is written with environmental sustainability in mind. In his book, Berman describes various ways to make the reader's home a more environmentally friendly place to live. The book is teeming with diagrams, simple charts and photographs, enabling users at any level......
• Gutted! By Lawrence LaRose If you’re thinking about buying an old house to restore, stop right now and buy this book. It is the absolute epitome of what you should not do, and it may even make you change your mind. Anyone interested in home improvement horror stories will love this book, and there......
• How to Build a Garage While many homes already have basic garages built into them, this isn't always the case, and some families find themselves seeking free plans, garage plans and the like. Some newer properties, and properties built by architects rather than home-building companies often do not come with the same garage space that......
• New Complete Guide to Landscaping: Design, Plant, Build by Better Homes and Gardens If you want to increase the value of your home, one of the best ways to go about it is to have your home professional landscaped. However, this is pretty costly and many homeowners, especially those with green thumbs, like the satisfaction of being able to do it on their......

Related Websites

• House Warming Gifts for Men When it comes to women, it is quite easy to predict what they would want as a gift for a housewarming celebration. Most of the time, they express their desires without even being asked. Men are quite the opposite. If you throw a question about gifts, some of them......
• Save Time, Money and Space in Over 80 Ways If you're looking for handy gadgets, tools and various items that can save you time, money or space (or all three!) this list of more than 80 top products is just what you need. Everyone's got saving money on their minds these days. Some of us are always looking to......
• Women's Healthy Hair Tips Most women are actually better off without a hair dresser, because there are plenty of healthy hair tips that you can employ at home in order to take care of your hair. When you visit a hair dresser, you undergo chemical treatments while your stylist up sells you into hair......
• Building A Pre-Fab House Can Cut Construction Waste By 90%. My wife and I often contemplate buying land somewhere and building our own house. It would be real nice to raise our kids (when we have them) somewhere that we have room to breathe and run around. I don't know where or when, but that is our goal in......
• Building Your Own Gym At Home pt 3 Why spend all that money on a gym membership when you end up making up excuses not to go every week? Why not build your own home gym where you can work out comfortably in your own home? Here is part three of a three part guide to building your......

Online Stores

• Nash American Automobiles Advertising Collectibles
• Build a Bear Bears Dolls Bears
• Step Stools Kitchen Furniture Home Store

If you liked this article, vote for it on del.icio.us and stumbleupon.


Categories:

Book Review, Handy Man

Tags:

architectural elements, audience, building a home, building books, building your own home, carpenters, comprehensive guide, construction methods, earth, finishing touches, frame house, george nash, how tos, illustrations, initial stages, job, poor contrast, staircases