What Your Contractor Can't Tell You: The Essential Guide to Building and Renovating

This book is excellent for those new to building or renovating and need to know what to do and say and who to say and do it to. The author does an excellent job setting out the relationships, processes, chronologies, and thinking for dealing with other parties all the way from dreaming about doing a remodel/build to finishing it. This is exactly the book I was looking for -- not a technical manual about building, but a handy reference about my role as owner and how I can or should interact with the architect, lender, general contractor, etc. to get the home or addition I want.

Ms. Johnston's book is an easy and enjoyable read chock full of sound advice. I purchased the book a year ago, one month before my husband and I began to interview architects for our project, building a new home 1000 miles away. After one quick read, I knew it was my "organized builder's guide for all non-builders". By using the suggestions found in the step-by-step approach we have now successfully survived the design phase, bid and builder selection process, contract negotiation, and the permitting phase. The knowledge we have gained from this book has provided us with confidence and there have been a few times already that we have impressed the industry professionals! It pays to be prepared and Ms. Johnston's book is a very big bargain when considering renovation and new construction costs. We have miles to go before our house is complete, but along the way I expect that we'll refer to this book time and time again...

As an attorney, I regularly see people who didn't go into contract deals as carefully as they should have. As someone about to build my own home, I read this book to make sure I was doing everything correctly since I knew enough to know that there was plenty I didn't know about contracting, building etc. This book is fantastic! Even if you're an attorney, you need this book. It provides valuable insight into specific subjects you would never know about unless you'd done these types of projects many times. I can't recommend it highly enough!!

Designing and building a new home is intimidating for three reasons (1) It is something with which you are not familiar; (2) you are not likely to have many friends who have done it; and (3) it is VERY expensive. Worse, you feel responsible for every mistake made, and you know that each mistakes cost you money and time. Buying this book is NOT one of those mistakes. Instead, it is the "ounce of prevention" that will pay for itself many hundreds of times over. Amy Johnston is a professional construction manager and owner's representative. Her wisdom focuses with framing the entire construction project in terms of a tradeoff between time, quality, and money - you can only have two of the three. We're only part way through our new house, and that rings very, very true. We clearly opted for taking a longer time - will we keep that focus as construction progresses? In any case, she gives the insights into each part of the triangle. Better yet, she is fair - she makes sure that neither you, nor anyone else, is getting cheated. Contractors, architects, bankers, inspectors, and everyone else are clearly defined in their roles - though the most important role is the home owner's, which she describes in great detail. Every chapter is focused on another phase of the project, and her clear writing opens up the mysteries along the way. She describes who is doing what (or should be doing it), and describes what choices need to made - and what the alternatives are - before saying what her choice is. Her points are illustrated with good references, pertinent anecdotes, and points that she labels "Insider's tips" and "pitfalls". I was pleased to find that I had miraculously avoided some pitfalls before I bought the book, and I expect to avoid many others as a reuslt of her advice. I was trying to figure out if this book could be described a "home construction for dummies" book. My initial reactiion was that dummies shouldn't be building a house - there are too many choices and decisions, and way too much complexity. But anyone can feel like a dummy when they make a bad decision, based on not enough knowledge and information. With this book, I have far more confidence that I will be well informed, and the problems that will inevitably occur will be minimzed as much as possible. I refer to the book constantly, and appreciate the wide margins that allows for notes to be made.