num_pages: 192
description: Funny, inspiring observations about houses and their inhabitants by the nation's most erudite defender of sheetrock and the author of the acclaimed The Walls Around Us.Twelve years ago, Owen and his family moved from an apartment in New York City to a 200-year-old house in a small town in rural Connecticut. Life under a leaky roof has not only made him handy with a reciprocating saw but has also shown him why it isn't necessarily foolish to keep a broken refrigerator in the bathroom.In Around the House, Owen explains the usefulness of a noisy furnace, the easiest way to increase a home's value by $25,000 (add a $50,000 kitchen to it), the perfect location for a second home (two doors away on the same street), the best way to explain sex to a four-year-old, and the reason why most remodeling projects are ultimately futile: "You could spend a million dollars perking up your living room, yet at your next dinner party you would still find guests in the laundry room resting drinks on piles of folded underpants". He also identifies the most difficult home-improvement chore in the world: "the last ten percent of anything you start".Around the House is a collection of new essays, plus Owen's finest pieces from Home magazine and The Atlantic Monthly, among others. It's the home improvement guide for anyone who knows that the truly important work around any house isn't done with hammer and nails.
language: English
title: Around the House : Reflections on Life Under a Roof
titlecomplete: Around the House : Reflections on Life Under a Roof
genres: Nonfiction
ratings_count: 26
publisher: Villard