rachelb36's review
3.0
Jacobs travels around the United States talking to homebuilders and architects, trying to find the ideal help and the ideal location to build her dream house for only $100,000.
While I did learn about some interesting companies and organizations (such as Yestermorrow, a design/build school), the author and I have pretty different ideas about what makes the ideal home, and she mostly revolved this book around her own preferences. In short, she likes modern design and I don't. Jacobs is convinced that modern design should be the standard, not the exception, to newly built construction; but there's a reason that it's not - the majority of homebuyers here in the U.S. don't prefer it!
And despite her claim that she's serious about finding her ideally designed, affordable house, she ends up purchasing an apartment in Brooklyn while writing this very book. In the end, the book seemed just an excuse for her to travel and earn a living. I'd be curious to know if she ended up building her dream house post-publication. (Since this book was published 15 years ago.)
The book was also too long for what it contained - it began to drag and I had to force myself to finish.
Note: There is some profanity, including God's name used in vain.
While I did learn about some interesting companies and organizations (such as Yestermorrow, a design/build school), the author and I have pretty different ideas about what makes the ideal home, and she mostly revolved this book around her own preferences. In short, she likes modern design and I don't. Jacobs is convinced that modern design should be the standard, not the exception, to newly built construction; but there's a reason that it's not - the majority of homebuyers here in the U.S. don't prefer it!
And despite her claim that she's serious about finding her ideally designed, affordable house, she ends up purchasing an apartment in Brooklyn while writing this very book. In the end, the book seemed just an excuse for her to travel and earn a living. I'd be curious to know if she ended up building her dream house post-publication. (Since this book was published 15 years ago.)
The book was also too long for what it contained - it began to drag and I had to force myself to finish.
Note: There is some profanity, including God's name used in vain.
kickpleat's review
3.0
This book was a bit more sterile than I had hoped. I am someone who is also looking for the perfect $100,000 house (obviously not in Vancouver), and I'm certainly a lot more emotional about my search than this author, who is on a quest for a modernist dwelling. And maybe that is it...the cold, concrete and straight lines of someone who wants to live in a modernist home is also reflective of the someone's writing style. But regardless, I still was curious enough after I finished the book to Google the author and see if she did find her dream home (since at the end of the book she reveals that her search across America took her right back to purchasing a tiny Brooklyn studio apartment).
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