Home Building Kits

Description

Authors David and Jeannie Stiles give readers all the information they need to build their own cabins -- whether it be as a wilderness retreat or a backyard studio. The authors describe each step in the process from buying land to obtaining services, from finding qualified construction help to deciding on and developing plans for a structure that suits their lifestyle and budget. "Cabins" is packed with detailed illustrations, plans and common-sense advice. Chapters include classic construction methods: how to build a log cabin, pole-built and stick-built cabin, post-and-beam, stone, cordwood and kit cabins. Construction methods are clearly illustrated in photographs and drawings and the advantages of each are explained in detail. Foundations, windows, doors, insulation, roofing, installing utilities, water and sanitary systems and heating are all discussed. Many designs are presented as inspiration and to help readers select the cabin that is perfect for them: homesteader log cabin, writing cabin, guest cabin, Japanese moon-gazing cabin, lakeside retreat, pyramid and A-frame, and hillside Mediterranean cabin. The authors include personal reminiscences from successful builders and cabin owners, and discuss furnishings and accessories that can help readers get the most enjoyment out of their newly built wilderness retreat.

Features

• ISBN13: 9781552093733
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Description

Best-selling author and log home expert Robbin Obomsawin features the rustic and charming architecture of the Adirondack great camps of the Northeast in her newest book. Established during the early twentieth century by wealthy rail and oil barons such as the Vanderbilts and the Rockefellers, the Adirondack camps served as the preeminent playground for those who wanted to escape industrial city life and reconnect with nature. Today, these classic camps represent the best of rustic style. Beautiful interior and outdoor photography illustrate the landscape and camps, while Obomsawin's insightful text offers a history of Adirondack style and shows how it is interpreted into the great camps of today. Adirondack Cabins is ideal for builders, design professionals, and those who dream of building a mountain retreat of their own that reflects the unique style and feel of the region. Robbin Obomsawin is the construction manager and general contractor for Beaver Creek Log Homes. She combines more than twenty years of log-joinery experience with her knowledge of conventional construction methods, and has served as vice president of the International Log Builder's Association for Handcrafters. She is the author of Small Log Homes, Log Cabin Classics, and The Arts & Crafts Cabin. She resides in upstate New York. Nancie Battaglia, a freelance photographer, lives in Lake Placid, New York, and has been documenting Adirondack lifestyle, scenes, themes and sporting activities for more than twenty-five years. Her photography has been seen in publications such as Sports Illustrated, Ski, Newsweek, Boys Life, Outside, National Geographic Adventure, Adirondack Life, the New York Times, as well as in books and promotional materials for the Adirondack region.

Description

Barns, sheds, garages, and storage buildings all age as houses do. And, like houses, they will eventually need renovation to save them from disrepair and to restore them to their former glory. And they can even be converted into spaces that are once again useful to their owners, including a storage area, a studio, or a home office. Readers will learn to save money, history, and architecture simply by renovating and restoring rather than by replacing their old outbuildings. From the foundation up, from the walls in, and from the roof down, craftsman Nick Engler, author of dozens of books and hundreds of magazine articles on woodworking, construction, and home how-to, takes readers through the process of renovating existing outbuildings. Engler gives seasoned advice on how to square and strengthen the structure, repair or replace the roofing and siding, enlarge and modify the building, install new doors and windows, and add electricity and plumbing. He also includes practical information on how to evaluate an old structure in light of current building codes and how to then preserve the original charm of any outbuilding while making it usable again.

Description

Adolph Lewisohn, requiring a staff of forty to minister to his guests' comfort in the wilds of the Adirondacks, imported to his camp a major-domo, barber, caddy, chess-player, singing teacher, and two chauffeurs, Majorie Merriweather Post made do with eighty-five servants for the sixty-five building of Topridge, which was approached by a private funicular railway and graced by a Russian dacha a token of affection for her third husband, a former ambassador to the Soviet Union.Equally magnificent was J.P. Morgan's Camp Uncas, Julius Bache's Wenonah Lodge, and William Seward Webb's Nehasane. These 'Great Camps' were to the beautiful and secluded Adirondack region what the 'Cottages' were to Newport: contradictions in terminology, but marvels of construction and architectural imagination. Truly fabulous structures, built primarily of wood and stone and set deep among the great forests, they are at once relics of a bygone age and prototypes for the contemporary architect, amateur builder, and historian.Harvey Kaiser traces the history of the Adirondacks from their first sighting by a European in 1535, through the eras of trapping, iron mining, and lumbering, to the development of railroad and steamboat lines that led to the influx of tourists and the building of the 'Great Camps.' The sixty years from 1870 to 1930 were the heyday of these camps, the 'Gilded Age' of the Adirondacks, and Kaiser give a fascinating account both of the personalities who engineered and financed these fabulous structures and of the buildings themselves...More than forty years after the Depression put an end to this princely life-style, the camps themselves are threatened by the forces of politics and nature. In Great Camps of the Adirondacks, Harvey Kaiser make a strong case for preservation: the obliteration of these remarkable structures would be an irreparable loss not only to our architectural heritage but to every individual to whom they are a resource and an inspiration.