Around the House : Reflections on Life Under a Roof

by David Owen

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.

Genres: Nonfiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published August 11, 1998

Reviews

[Lobstergirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not worth reading - there's not enough information in here about actual home repair or renovation to be useful. It's just a bunch of brief musings, reprints of previously published magazine pieces, randomly categorized under the headings Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Most of the anecdotes will be familiar to readers of Sheetrock & Shellac: A Thinking Person's Guide to the Art and Science of Home Improvement and The Walls Around Us: The Thinking Person's Guide to How a House Works.

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quotable:

Like most people, I did my studying in my dorm room and went to the library only to sleep.

I don’t think I could ever make myself get rid of books – at least not hardcovers. Even when I’m not reading them, I like to know they’re there, emitting knowledge molecules into the air. I also like to see them. A wall covered with books has the same enticingly intricate visual impact as a floor covered with an Oriental rug. It’s like a huge, complicated flower arrangement that you don’t have to water.

[Treasure Island Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Often in a book of essays, the author reveals so much about himself or his family that you feel you know them. This book is like that.

[Cindy May]

I particularly enjoyed the chapter where he discusses why everyone should have two houses - one for showing off and entertaining in, and the other for actually living in and messing up without caring. I can totally get behind that idea!

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute. Quick read.

[Manintheboat · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's the same book as Sheetrock and Shellac, but not as good. It has very few different passages.

[Jac · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's like sketch comedy in written form, unconnected pieces of one-five pages each. would probably make perfect bathroom reading.