Mr. Fix-It Introduces You to Your Home

Searching for our dream home a few years ago, my wife, Mary Beth, and I knew only vaguely what we wanteduntil we walked up to a slightly tired-looking brick Georgian. The place was far from trendy; in fact, it had been built back when FDR was president. There was no hot tub in the backyard, no "family recycling center," and no skylights. It had the original kitchen, the original furniture, and even the original ownera kind lady who had lived there since 1941. Yet as we stepped inside on that wintry day, I closed the two-inch-thick front door behind us and heard a sturdy thunk, like an old Mercedes. "This is the house," I instantly whispered to my wife. "What are you talking about? We haven't even been through it," she responded. But I persisted: "I'm telling you, this is the house!" And I was right. With Mary Beth's enthusiastic approval, we bought the placemetal kitchen cabinets and allthe next day. Lots of people, especially real estate agents, think they can divine exactly what a house should be in order to appeal to people. They might come up with an ideal square footage, promote a certain bedroom-to-bathroom ratio, and go on and on about the value of a deck versus a patio. I think that's mostly nonsense. Because when it comes down to it, the only thing that's truly important in a house is the way it feelsa place that feels solid, not tinny; a home that keeps you cool in the summer and toasty warm in the winter; a house that will stand up for the ages, rather than fall apart before the decade's out. Whether you're renovating a home, building an addition, or simply maintaining what you've got, I believe it's a lot better to let yourself be guided by that principle rather than try to add a few haphazard things that might attract some future buyers. More than anything, I want you to think of your house as a place to treasure and care for, not patch together. We all allow ourselves on occasion to do slipshod things to our cars, for instance, whether we skip the occasional oil change, hold off on the scheduled maintenance, or even pocket the insurance money instead of repairing that bashed-in fender. Unfortunately, too many people take the same approach to a house. Yet while a car will eventually end up on the scrap heap, a well-maintained house will only grow in value. This investment goes far deeper than simply owning a few shares of some dot-com or blue-chip stock. It's an investment in ourselves and our quality of life. As the very symbol of family life, a house demands respect from the people that live in it. That sense of respect is what I hope you can develop by reading this book. As you'll discover, this is not a typical how-to volume, with tips on how to fix a broken bathroom tile, regrout a kitchen backsplash, or patch a leaky roof. There are probably plenty of those already on your bookshelfand if you're like most homeowners who try to wade through them, you probably find yourself lost in a bewildering vocabulary of floor joists, wall studs, R-values for insulation, and the secret coding of blueprints. It's as if these books were written in another language. Instead, this is a book that will help you begin to understand a house in its entirety, in a language you can follow. While you may not find the exact details you'll need for every project you want to undertake, you'll walk away with something far more important: an intuitive understanding of your home that will empower you to make the right decisions for its future as well as for your own. I'll start by taking you on a tour of your house, from the ground up. We'll look at how a house worksitManfredini, Lou is the author of 'Mr. Fix-It Introduces You to Your Home', published 2002 under ISBN 9780345449870 and ISBN 0345449878.