Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Homeowner's Guide to Greatness Giveaway

We were so clueless when we moved into our house.  It was only an inch away from foreclosure, there were tenants living here (the human and animal kind), and it had, to say the least, been neglected. If only I’d had The Homeowner’s Guide to Greatness by Jocelyn Jane Cox to refer to – I’d have been much better equipped to respond to these and many other challenges.  Or at the very least, laugh them off.  There are always unexpected surprises in store for the new homeowner, and humor always helps.  For example, I could have used a laugh the day we discovered that our underground oil tank was leaking and had to have it excavated. 

That was fun. 

When Cox and her husband moved from the city to a suburb not far from here, they were excited to begin decorating, gardening and otherwise customizing their home.  They didn’t count on poison ivy, mice, or trees falling on their roof.   Cox takes us through the process of procuring, purchasing, evaluating and maintaining a new home with an engaging combination of wisdom and goofiness.

My favorite part of the book was the “memos” section, where the various parties, such as bunnies, fruit flies and bees, are confronted in writing and asked such pressing questions as “Why horizontal stripes?”

I’ll give away a copy of the book to a random commenter on this post.  You can also order it here on Amazon.com.
 
Read more from Jocelyn Jane Cox on her awesome blog The Home Tome.

Commenting on this post will close on Saturday, September 1 at 12 noon.

5 comments:

Duncan said...

This reminds me of the book and movie called "Mr Blanding Builds his Dreamhouse". They were popular many years ago and describe two "city slickers who move into the country to fix up an old house.

the home tome said...

Thank you so much! I'm such a hypocrite - I'm wearing horizontal stripes right now!

Oh, it wouldn't be easy to laugh through a leaking oil tank and ensuing excavation. Maybe only after many years... :)

tina said...

Well I hope I win! It sounds like a book everyone can use!

tut-tut said...

hello! getting back to it, I think. A meme; which one?

~mel said...

Oh mercy ~ the things I have gone through over the years by being a home owner! Excavating projects, septic systems, hot water heaters, furnaces, ghost in the house, bats in the chimney, the list goes on and on and on! You just may have inspired me with this post:)