There’s only so much books can teach you about the homebuilding process, but having no better leads for must-have guides, I picked up Building Your Own Home for Dummies from Amazon and read it cover to cover. I’m a slow reader and finished the whole thing in about four days, so it’s a refreshingly quick read for an all-encompassing reference guide.
The best thing about the book is that it’s applicable to people like me who are using architects and other professionals to build the house as well as those who are doing the design, general contracting, and even construction themselves. Wherever you fit in the spectrum, there’s useful and even essential information in here for you.
Everything from construction loans, to protection against liens, to steel vs. wood framing is covered. Besides the occasional oddball statement like “if you don’t currently use e-mail, take the time now to figure it out” or an explanation of Palm PDAs and Lotus Notes, the book seems plenty up-to-date. It’s also chock full of plugs for other books in the Dummies series, but hey, whatever.
If you’re going to buy this book and read it, I recommend keeping a highlighter handy to highlight any information you find particularly useful. It’s not the type of book you’d want to read cover-to-cover twice; useful, but not even mildly entertaining. In fact, I find that most jokes attempted in Dummies books make me feel slightly uncomfortable for the author.
All in all, my inner dummy appreciated the usefulness of this book, and I would recommend it as a good first read for anyone thinking about building a house.