Karl Champley

A great book for inspiration and ideas. The author starts off with a very succinct reminder about decluttering your living space first and then deciding what room(s) actually need more space. It was particularly effective to see a master builder acknowledge the need to discard extraneous items and follow up with a solid plan. A frequent mistake, apparently, is simply overlooking a more effective rearrangement of the furniture in a room which can resolve many space constraints. A chapter with diagrams was devoted to these concepts.

The projects were laid out in terms of each space found in a typical North American home. My two favourite remodelling projects were the mini-office space under the angle created by a staircase (p. 181) and the garden shed conversion to a retreat/guest room (p. 246).

I asked for an evaluation by a hobby renovator friend, with regard to the technical details. He recommended the book as very approachable with excellent skill-level ratings and high-quality diagrams to follow for the construction (an aspect which I couldn't evaluate). He also pointed out how important the section on tools was ~ nothing too exotic and sound advice on the basic needs.… (mehr)

This seems like a handy book for homeowners looking to makeover some rooms in their house for more interesting uses of space. If you're not afraid to cut holes in your walls this book has some neat ideas. Unfortunately, only a few of the projects are practical for renters, so it wasn't terribly useful to me although fun to read and imagine anyhow!

I got this as a Kindle book, and although everything seemed readable, I suspect I lost something aesthetic through not being able to see the graphic design and layout as the authors intended. This book is probably prettier in paper copy.… (mehr)