Cottage for Sale: Must Be Moved: A Woman Moves a House to Make a Home

From Publishers Weekly
Whouley, a single, 40-something business planning consultant to booksellers and a self-described frugal New Englander, takes on the challenge of moving a vacation cottage a distance of 20 miles so she can attach it to her tiny three-room house at the edge of a bog on Cape Cod to create more personal and professional space. But given the amount of detail she presents on everything from obtaining a permit to selecting decking materials to waiting for the plumber to arrive, it appears she may have been thinking of getting a book out of the experience, too. Her meticulous account chronicles the joys and frustrations of the yearlong project that began in December 1999, when Whouley saw a classified ad in the local paper announcing, "Cottages for Sale. $3,000 each. Must be moved." By book's end, a year later, she hosts a Christmas dinner "in the newly arranged living-dining room, at the big round table that is now by the windows... with the view of the birds at the feeder"-a huge improvement over having to consume meals "hunched over the kitchen counter" in her old digs. Do-it-yourselfers will enjoy the exhaustive information regarding budget home construction, including how the lumber at the independent Mid-Cape Home Center stacks up against Home Depot's (Whouley likes "old friend" Mid-Cape better, but grudgingly admires Home Depot's service). Other readers might skim the construction details and focus on Whouley's descriptions of the workers, friends and neighbors who help create her new home. Photos not seen by PW. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
A few years ago, the author, a habitual reader of classified ads, saw something that caught her eye. Completely assembled cottages were for sale for $3,000, but, if you wanted one, you had to be prepared to move it yourself. What would the author do with her very own cottage? Well, she ran her business out of her home, and she was desperately in need of more office space. Why not attach the cottage to her house? Cheaper than constructing an addition, right? So began an odyssey of confusion, consternation, and light comedy. On one hand, there is not much to this book--she buys the cottage, arranges to have it moved, and it gets moved--but, on the other hand, there is so much here you will want to read it twice. The book has a cast of characters that range from interesting to eccentric, a series of misadventures that might have come from a comic novel, and a narrative style that makes you keep turning the pages. It's one of those books in which the author has taken something personal and made it universal. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


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These two books cover the subject of home renovation but are written from different perspectives. While looking through the classified advertisements, Whouley, a freelance book business consultant, discovers cottages for sale that had to be moved for new development. On a lark, she visited the cottages and decided to buy one. The book covers moving the cottage to her Cape Cod home, handling the paperwork, dealing with contractors, and joining forces with workers and friends to finish off the project. Whouley uses the project as a metaphor for building her life as a single, fortysomething career woman in the 21st century. The result is an enjoyable read, but it seems somewhat whitewashed; nobody who has dealt with a home improvement project will believe her lack of hassles and the deep, spiritual side of the project. LaRose, an editor, writer, "amateur homebuilder, and freelance wiseass," presents a far more realistic, disturbing, and amazingly funny account of completely renovating a house in Sag Harbor, NY. Tiring of their Manhattan apartment, he and his wife decide to move to Long Island and make a new life. Having been married for less than a year, they end up owning a "fixer-upper"-all they can afford with LaRose out of a job and his wife commuting to Manhattan to earn enough to meet the mounting cost of their project. LaRose takes construction jobs to learn homebuilding and earn some money and in his spare time strips the house to the studs and rebuilds it. Along the way, he and his wife get to know their neighbors, consider divorce, and have a son. In the end, LaRose is asked if he would do it all again and surprises himself by answering, "In a heartbeat." Enjoyable, readable, and humorous, this book will appeal to anyone who has ever built or remodeled a home. Both books will have fairly wide appeal and are recommended for public libraries.-Mark Bay, Cumberland Coll. Lib., Williamsburg, KY Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.


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