Sheetrock & Shellac

Disingenuous and Disappointing:
I was given this book as a gift and when I read the front and back covers, I thought: this is the book for me - this is my story. I began DIY home improving six years ago and was a novice when I started. Over the years, I have learned a tremendous amount and now I can do most anything. I was excited about reading Owen's tale as it seemed to closely parallel mine. However, as I read, I became very disappointed. Instead of, "As his skill grows, so does his confidence," I would say, "As his bank account grows, so does his ability to hire more contractors." The back cover suggests the writing is witty and "hilarious." I chuckled once. That does not equal hilarious in my estimation, but that's just me. Where are the details about learning? About using tools (not just buying them)? About how to overcome all the difficulties with home improvement of an old house? Anyone who has ever worked on an old house knows it is usually an adventure with all sorts of stories to be told. The back cover uses the examples of progressing from replacing a broken light switch to wiring an entire room, and from making bookcases to building an office. Certainly sounds substantial. But let's see ... the story of wiring an entire room is taken care of in a single sentence (p. 45) and mentions adding two circuits. So, where is the discussion of adding those circuits to the main service panel? That's not exactly trivial for a budding DIYer. And the office building story is described in slightly more than two pages (pp. 43-45). I guess the author didn't want to waste space so that he could instead wax on about concrete for sixteen thrilling pages. And the big teaser, that the author makes the leap from renovation to building a new house from the ground up (a dream of my own), is completely disingenuous. It turns out to be just another exercise in the author hiring others to build a "vacation" house for him - six miles away. What's wrong with this picture? And as far as the theme of "what the space we live in says about us," the author fails to deliver on that with any substance as well. If you are someone who says, "We remodeled our kitchen," but in translation, you had your kitchen remodeled (by someone else), then this book might be for you. If you are someone who actually did the remodeling of your kitchen, then your reaction to this book might be like mine - frustration.

Smart and funny building and home repair:
While The Walls Around Us: The Thinking Person's Guide to How a House Works is a better book (sequels are so hard) Sheetrock is another funny, idiosyncratic approach to home-owning, designing a house, and getting a bulldozer stuck in the mud. Owen, like me and many people, has more interest than experience in working on his house and his random walk through how things are made is entertaining. Sheetrock lacks the zing of his initial jump from NYC apartment to small town historic home, but I'll look forward to installment three of his home-learning saga.

Not so geeky!:
I have to admit that I've had a crush on Norm Abrams since I first saw him on an episode of "This Old House" years ago. My heart a-flutter, tuning in to his show, "The New Yankee Workshop," was a guilty pleasure. It wasn't too much of a surprise to my husband, therefore, to see that my summer reading included "Sheetrock & Shellac." I told him it was because I wanted to sound like I knew what I was talking about if I ever got the chance to meet my home improvement idol. This book did not disappoint. David Owen does a fine job of explaining some of the brass tacks of do-it-yourself projects familiar to any owner of an older home. He digresses a bit in the area of plumbing, but his approach, self-deprecating and often laugh-out-loud funny, was inspiring. Have I taken a sledgehammer to a wall yet? No, but now I think I could.

Fun and Interesting:
Definitely worth a read for anyone interested in home improvement. I might suggest buying a used copy or hitting up your local library instead of buying it new, though, as this is more of an informative memoir than a reference book.

A very "real" book:
I just finished reading and enjoyed tremendously. I felt his introspections were right on. My husband & I have been building and remodeling a house for over twenty years. We've enjoyed ourselves and raised seven great kids. My father told me before he died that he use to worry we would never get the house finished, but that he came to see that the planing & the doing were what made life worthwhile. This book should be published as an audiobook. LM