The Big Fix-Up: How to Renovate Your Home Without Losing Your Shirt

According to the premise of this book, you cannot and should not do it yourself. Leave that to the professionals, while keeping a wary eye on the multitude of mercenaries who may be out to remove your shirt. And the evidence is laid out here in such detail that you may never want to sully your hands in the dreaded labors of renovation. As Pollan and Levine point out, when you let someone else do the work, there's still enough to do to create a new do-it-yourself category: task- and money-management. The authors give the homeowner so much to consider that you may never again want to tag after, oversee and otherwise annoy your contracted workers. You'll be much too busy deciding whom to consult, what to expect and how much it will cost. (And on the financial side of renovation, there are the problems involved in bank loans, bids analyses and mortgaging.) We're provided with project analyses and advice on calculating affordability, as well as with an example of a written contract between a homeowner and a general contractor. Home renovation books generally stress some sort of knowledge of the physical work involved. No so with The Big Fix-Up , which advocates the almost universal use of the general contractor and a hands-off policy in dealing with craftspersons. (June)