Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 2, 1993 TAG: 9305030320
SECTION: HOMES PAGE: E3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN WARDE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
READER'S DIGEST NEW COMPLETE DO-IT-YOURSELF MANUAL (Reader's Digest Association, 1991, $30) is a completely revised and newly illustrated version of the 1973 classic that has become a bible of amateur home repair.
Virtually every task required for maintaining a home is covered. Information is presented simply and in plain language, using an easy-to-follow style of captioned step-by-step illustrations (approximately 3,000 of them, mostly in color).
RENOVATION: A COMPLETE GUIDE (Prentice Hall, 1991, $38) is another revised book; the original was published in 1982. The author, Michael W. Litchfield, is the founding editor of Fine Homebuilding magazine.
The book focuses on remodeling older houses and, like the Reader's Digest book, is one of the most complete, useful and easily understood volumes available. Illustrations and photographs number more than 1,000.
RENOVATING OLD HOUSES (Taunton Press, 1992, $37.95), written by George Nash, a remodeling specialist, is the book to own if you are an able amateur with moderate carpentry experience and are wedded to one of those falling-down farmhouses in rural America. Taunton Press is noted for its magazines - Fine Woodworking, Fine Homebuilding, Fine Gardening, and Threads, all aimed at dedicated amateurs and professionals - and excellent how-to books.
Other recent volumes from Taunton include THE WOODFINISHING BOOK (1992, $24.95) by Michael Dresdner, an articulate professional refinisher whose revelatory explanations of the chemistry of finishes, along with humorous asides, raises this book above other how-to finishing guides, and BUILDING AND DESIGNING DECKS (1993, $21.95), by Scott Schuttner, a carpenter and home builder living in Alaska, who writes from experience. (Most books on this subject are pretty formulaic and theoretical.) Schuttner goes to lengths to demystify practical problems, like those that arise in building a deck on several levels and around trees and other natural obstacles.
\ John Warde is the author of "The New York Times Season-by-Season Guide to Home Maintenance."
by CNB