The Builder's Secret: Learning the Art of Living Through the Craft of Building

After a career working with owner-builders, it was great to see a "why-to" book to supplement "how-to" books. The owner-builders I've worked with over the years were looking beyond just saving money. In many cases, they had plenty of money. What they lacked was the satisfaction of building something permanent with their own two hands. If you're thinking of jumping into a building project, you need a good "how-to" book to keep you out of trouble and a "why-to" book, like The Builder's Secret, to keep you encouraged.

Americans reached a point, not so long ago, where most did nothing in the way of creating shelter for themselves. Housing became just another product to buy or sell or rent. But there remained a few for whom the atavistic urge to build was more attractive than a mere financial transaction. Now that few has swelled into a tidal wave of owner-builders of every size and shape who have poured such an ocean of cash into their projects that Home Depot has supplanted Sears among the Dow industrial pillars.It's curious that with this massive shift and the thousands of how-to construction books on the market, that a Builder's Secret type book has never been done before--telling the stories of a few people who just went out and did it. And it's also curious how a fairly mundane subject can make for such an interesting book. How-did makes for better reading than how-to.When I began my first building project a few years ago I intended to keep a journal of my progress. But of course there was not even time to get the project done on time, much less chronicle the whole thing. Builder's Secret is the closest thing I've seen to what I had in mind. It's not a journal, but a set of tales based on interviews with a varied group of owner-builders. Each is a vignette of material similar to that in Kidder's "House", with the important difference that all of these are about people who do the work, rather than paying someone to do it. It's all about work that is meaningful, that you can measure and admire at the end of the day, and live in at the end of the project. Ehrenhaft doesn't mention it, but I found myself thinking of the contrast between this sort of work and the clock-punching type. Even those who build houses for a living usually yearn to build for themselves, to do the work that has the reward embodied in the thing created rather than in a paycheck. And how many data base administrators dream of taking a few months off to structure their own database?And it is the actual doing of the work that the people of Builder's Secret seem to crave, for some of them are wealthy enough to have hired it out; others, such as an architect in a major firm would be more efficient sticking to their specialty and letting experts do the hammering, but something drove them to do it themselves, something probably not dissimilar to what drove all of Ehrenhaft's subjects: a couple schoolteachers, a pro flutist, an ex cop, and a handful of hardworking counterculture types. I think the reason this disparate set of people all embarked on building projects is akin to the reason women bear children the old way when Caesarian sections are more efficient, and why people still slave over a hot stove making dinner when they could more quickly and easily whip up a protein shake in a blender. It's fulfilling. It's what we've done since the advent of Homo Sapiens, and possibly since Homo Erectus, although erectus here would refer to back posture, not plu

This book just made me feel good. It was recommended to me by the author himself, via e-mail. And I thank you for that, Mr. Ehrenhaft. (I didn't know how else to reach you!) But I thoroughly enjoyed every builder's tale. This book inspired me on several levels. It made me realize there is more to life than just doing your job and picking up a paycheck... that there is tremendous value and satisfaction in creating your own dwelling. I used to paint houses and do a little carpentry (on a much smaller scale) and this made me realize that's something that's missing from my life lately -- the simple pleasure of doing this kind of work... of creating something you can stand back and admire at the end of the day. This book made me want to build myself a house someday. It may be twenty years before I do, but I will! I have recommended this to many friends and do so again to whoever reads this review. It's a heart-warming look at a bunch of decent, ordinary people who have done something very special in building their own homes.

I've just spent two happy days reading this book, meeting some fascinating people within its covers. It's a surprising book, like a house with secret rooms, and it leads into some beautiful philosophical terrain. The author talks about epiphanies and changes that take place when one sets about building one's own home, or even a bookcase: the flash of enlightenment that comes when you understand, and know what to do next, and realize in that second that you are on the journey to becoming a carpenter.But Mr. Ehrenhaft is honest, and very correctly describes the owner-builder process as "more than crushingly hard work," albeit somewhat mitigated by the sheer joy of doing it well.I've been building houses longer than many people have been alive, and I learned a few things from this book. The art and science of carpentry is information-rich, and you'd have to live several lifetimes to acquire all of it. Proud to have this book on my shelf.

George Ehrenhaft has opened a new door, one that leads into the mystical, highly personal realm of why remodelers, rehabilitators, and home builders create their personal domains with their own hands. This is touchy territory--one potential subject flatly told Ehrenhaft it was none of his damn business. Others made excuses. I'm glad the author persisted. The result is a balanced offering of widely diverse stories: teacher, housecleaner, teacher, architect, graphic artist, symphony flutist, policeman, artist, builder-writer.Most interviewees began their projects overenthused and underinformed. Lacking knowledge, skills, and tools, they were impelled by financial necessity, curiosity, fantasy, a hunger for a transcendent adventure. Men with wives struggling to understand; women dealing with macho members of the building trades. Personal relationships gone awry. Disaster and achievement. Despair and elation.The author found sentiment, resilience, intuition, testing of limits, reverence for nature, "a conspiracy of forces," and "`being filled with a thrilling and joyous sense of Shelter--with a capital S.'"Like writers who must write, owner-builders must build. Pity those who never feel the natural high of living in their own created shelter. Pity yourself? Or step into the lives of these nine and live the transcendent moments with them.