Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook: The Essential Guide to Caring for Everything in Your Home
by Martha Stewart
from Clarkson Potter
A lifetime's worth of homekeeping know-how, this towering volume is sure to be one of the most comprehensive books on the subject. Let Martha show you around the home, teaching you everything you need to know in order to clean, care for and maintain it along the way.
Martha Stewart's new home reference book is a must-have for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that it's gorgeous. Printed on thick, glossy pages covered with subtle sepia photos and that perfect Martha-blue as an accent color, Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook is a pretty and practical package for everyone: "all mothers and daughters, fathers and sons who have a room, an apartment, or a home to care for." Stewart's exhaustive handbook features a handy "how to use this book" introduction; a room by room guide with weekly, monthly, and seasonal checklists; tips for cleaning, creating a comfortable and safe home, and moving; and a guide for identifying and caring for materials in your home. Curious? Take a look at some excerpts below. You'll be sweeping and shelving your way to a happier home in no time. --Daphne Durham
How to Use This Book: An Excerpt
When the first issue of Martha Stewart Living was published in 1990, I could not have begun to anticipate how wide-ranging our readers' homekeeping concerns would be. Since then, we have discovered new solutions to age-old problems, brought in experts to advise us on very specific questions about very specific?c concerns, and experimented with all the new (and not so new) home-care products. Over the years, I've brought these lessons home with me, too, which has made me more organized and made my homes better cared for and maintained.Households are busy places, works in progress where there is always something needing immediate attention and always something more that can be done. With that in mind, I have organized this book to address the tasks at hand and also to address the "more that can be done" for when you have the time and the inclination go beyond the essentials.
It starts with the big picture--an examination of every room and everything you will find within each. The eleven chapters in the "Room by Room" section take you on a tour through the house, focusing on the surfaces and furnishings you might find in any room, and offering strategies for their care and maintenance. Starting with the kitchen, the central staging area in any home, these chapters open with practical space-planning advice, followed by the golden rules of organizing. This information is intended to help contain your belongings and make each room clutter-free and functional. Relevant homekeeping concerns particular to each room are explored in depth--so stain-removal basics appear in "Laundry Room," the best way to clean grout in "Bathroom," and easy sewing repairs in "Utility Spaces." The equipment essential to each room is also addressed, so if you are considering what kind of bathtub to install during a bathroom renovation or whether a gas or electric range would best suit your style of cooking, you will have the information necessary to make such an investment with confidence.
Organize Your Kitchen: Martha's Golden Rules
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How Your House Works: A Visual Guide to Understanding & Maintaining Your Home (How Your House Works) (How Your House Works)
by Charlie Wing
from R.S. Means Company
Why is my faucet leaking, my toilet running, or my dishwasher refusing to start? Can I fix it myself? What's causing the heating system to smell bad or the foundation to crack? Do I need an air filtration system? Is the new "engineered lumber" as good as conventional wood? These are just a few examples of questions homeowners face when repairs are needed, or when a new house or addition is being planned.
There's no question that it pays to be an informed consumer. Knowledge of your home's systems helps you control repair and construction costs and make sure the correct elements are being installed or replaced.
This book uncovers the mysteries behind just about every major appliance and building element in your house. Clear, "exploded" drawings show you exactly how these things should be put together and how they function - what to check if they don't work, and what you can do that might save you having to call in a professional.
The easy-to-understand pictures and explanations on every page get right to the point, helping you understand how things work, what can go wrong, and how to trouble-shoot a problem.
Virtually everything in your house is included:
- Electrical - circuit breakers and grounding, service, outlets, lamps and fixtures.
- Heating and Air conditioning - gas, electrical and oil - ductwork and piping, thermostats, central and window AC units, humidifiers and dehumidifiers, and air filtering systems.
- Plumbing - kitchen and bath fixtures, piping, water heaters, traps and vents, septic tanks, pumps and water softener systems - even sprinkler systems and swimming pool filters/heaters.
- Major household appliances - from kitchen to laundry.
- Foundation, framing, doors and windows - including issues like drainage and radon, types of framing and how it supports the house, and all types of doors and windows.
Concrete Countertops: Design, Form, and Finishes for the New Kitchen and Bath
by Fu-Tung Cheng
from Taunton
This book reinvents the countertop with a single material: concrete. Concrete Countertops is an essential book for architects, homeowners and contractors who want to learn how to design, form, mix, pour, color, trowel, inlay and finish decorative concrete countertops. Homeowners will be inspired by the 350 color photographs that bring this exciting medium to life.
Building Kitchen Cabinets
by Udo Schmidt
from Taunton
Building instead of buying cabinets means not only cost savings but also better materials and a truly custom kitchen. This book shows anyone how to build a complete set of kitchen cabinets. Professional cabinetmaker Udo Schmidt covers the entire process, from preparing materials and selecting the right tools to finishing and installing hardware.
My Home, My Money Pit: Your Guide to Every Home Improvement Adventure
by Tom Kraeutler
from Knack
New Fix-It-Yourself Manual: How to Repair, Clean, and Maintain Anything and Everything In and Around Your Home
from Reader's Digest
The indispensable bible for keeping a home in tip-top shape, it is the time- and money-saver every homeowner needs. It functions as a repair manual, an evaluation guide, a compendium of household hints, an emergency reference, and a homeowner's encyclopedia. Over 3,000 illustrations.
All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House
by David Giffels
from William Morrow
Finding the perfect house is never easy. Rebuilding one from a crumbling pile—to say nothing of making it into a home—is even harder.
With their infant son in tow, David Giffels and his wife comb the environs of Akron, Ohio, in search of just the right house for their burgeoning family. Running through David's head the whole time are the lyrics of a Replacements song, ". . . Look me in the eye, then tell me that I'm satisfied," and it gives all the more purpose to their quest. But nothing seems right . . . until they spot a beautiful, decaying Gilded Age mansion. A former rubber industry executive's domain, the once grand residence lacks functional plumbing and electricity, leaks rain like a cartoon shack, and is infested with all manner of wildlife. But for a young man at a coming-of-age crossroads—"suspended between a perpetual youth and an inevitable adulthood"—the challenge is exactly the allure.
All the Way Home follows Giffels's funny, poignant, and confounding journey as he and his wife and a colorful collection of helpers turn a money pit into a house that will complete their family. Nothing could prepare them for a home restoration epic that includes evicting squatters (both four- and two-legged), battling an invading wisteria vine, hunting a ghost, and discovering thousands of dollars in hidden Depression-era cash. But the story's heart lies deeper, in an unexpected series of personal hardships that call into question what "home" really means, and what it means to grow up.
Written with the humor and insight of Bill Bryson and John Grogan, All the Way Home is the engaging tale of a young father's struggle to restore a house and find his way . . . without losing himself.
Drywall: Professional Techniques for Great Results
by Myron R. Ferguson
from Taunton
The most thorough and concise guide to hanging drywall available. This revised edition features new material, additional pages and color photographs. With more than 87,000 copies sold, Drywall is a mainstay of any comprehensive home-building library.
Black & Decker Complete Home Repair (Black & Decker Complete Photo Guide)
by Creative Publishing international
from Creative Publishing international
With more than 350 projects and 2300 photos, virtually every home repair challenge is covered.
Deluxe Edition includes a handy hardware chart
This new edition of the classic Black & Decker« Complete Photo Guide to Home Repair now includes a durable washable flex cover that makes the book ideal for use on the homeowners work site.
Added to this edition is a homeowners convenience kit, including peel-and-stick reminder stickers and labels to help you tag your calendar with home maintenance reminders, keep track of furnace and appliance maintenance, index your circuit-breaker box, organize your tool collection, and more.
- Includes more than 350 projects
Trim Carpentry and Built-Ins (Build Like A Pro)
by Clayton Dekorne
from Taunton
Installing trim requires precision and know-how. This is the book that shows how to handle all common trim projects, including window and door casings, baseboards, wainscoting and crown molding -- and get professional results every time. This is a complete do-it-yourself book written by a professional carpenter and presented in a highly accessible format.
