Building Your Home: A Simple Guide to Making Good Decisions Paperback – April 11, 2017

I'm still years away from building my home, but this book is already so useful! It has me thinking about all sorts of practical things I would have overlooked. I love how it is designed like a workbook, so it feels like Kristina Leigh is assisting in the process by creating a sturdy foundation onto which I can develop my own goals and ideas. I'm so grateful to have a book like this as a guide!

Nuts and bolts method to designing any space! Although I am not designing a home, I purchased this book for its simple approach to understanding, appreciating, and capitalizing on any area of my home.I wish, however, that I would have had this great resource when designing my home 20 years ago! So many costly mistakes could have been avoided!

I actually bought this book after using a library book for awhile because it's useful enough as a workbook to be well worth the cost, especially compared to the amount I'm about to spend on a major home remodel. I still give it 3 stars because the lack of the accompanying app because I'm not cool enough to have an iPhone becomes more annoying the further into the book you get, but the book is entirely usable without it. Hopefully the author will remedy the problem soon and make an android app available.The book helps immensely with all the practical aspects. For example, until working through this book it hadn't occurred to me what a nuisance it would be to not have a side door. We've never had a side door but the remodel, while adding a lot of wonderful features, is also moving the back door far away from the kitchen leaving no convenient way to haul in groceries. Thankfully we caught this before we got any further and added a side door. Small thing but over decades of grocery shopping will be a huge life improvement. :)I highly recommend getting about a dozen books from the library and the choosing the most useful to purchase. I'm quite certain the $100 I spent on books has saved me immensely more money as well as frustration.

We aren't going to build for a year or two but wow - this book brought up so many things to work out ahead of time. I've always wondered if my partner and I could survive building a house.We are both opinionated and don't always communicate as well as we should. The chapter offering a format for how to communicate and make decisions is gold. It is already working as we slowly meander through all the things that we will need to start considering.

I feel embarrassed to have bought this book. Spouse and I opinions are same. Author has many pictures posing next to various construction elements or sometimes just in a prom dress. Also numerous empty pages with section headings - what a way to fill in pages.I don't think you could build a cardboard box from her advice. It was very superficial and obvious. Light on actual content

I only wish I had this book sooner. It came out at the end of my 25 years in the design and construction industry. Or I would have used it as a manuel with every homeowner I have ever built with. I feel like we finally have a simple way to translate and navigate the often confusing process and verbage of construction. It's almost like a translater. And the lists are amazing. And the examples of all the different surface choices are such an easy way to decide options. It is the best gift you can give someone who is in any stage of planning or construction.

This book does the work for you - it's incredible. It thinks ahead for you, to keep the decision making simple. I'm building a house, and used this book to guide me through the process. It would have been a completely different outcome had I not used this book. The worksheets make it simple, and Wiggins highlights danger zones and is always one step ahead. I can't recommend it enough.

I'm sure this book is an excellent resource for lots of people, just not for us. The book is more of a workbook-style planner than a resource of tons of information. If you like filling in lots of blanks to guide you through the homebuilding process, and make sure you think of all the details, this could be a very good book for you. However, if you're looking to answer questions like the pros and cons of enclosed soffits vs. open soffits as it relates to cost and maintenance, this is not for you. I don't even think the word soffit is in the book. Just not as much detail and guidance as we were expecting.