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The Second Home Book: The Can-Do, How-to, Get-Through Guide
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| List Price: | $15.95 |
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Product Description
The Ultimate Guide to Organize and Inspire You So You Can—Really!—Sit Back and Enjoy Your Second Home
The Second Home Book is the first of its kind – a conversational, comprehensive and convenient guide to setting up, operating and, most of all, enjoying a second home. It is cheerful and useful—funny, fact-filled, anecdotal – appealing to both those already ensconced in or encumbered with a 2nd residence as well as those imagining a future, fantastic home.
In The Second Home Book, you’ll learn:
--how to furnish your second home on a shoestring (without relying on castoffs from your primary residence)
--how to run your second home efficiently from afar
--how to assemble a dream team of helpers (from handymen to cleaning help) and keep them motivated
--how to entertain (even other people’s children) without exhausting yourself
--why you should avoid renovating your second home’s kitchen
--how to handle bills, routine maintenance, and emergencies
--how to turn any house into your dream house
The Second Home Book is not about how to finance a second home—it’s about absolutely everything else you need to know in one cheerful, easy-to-navigate volume.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #813819 in Books
- Published on: 2008-02-19
- Released on: 2008-02-19
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 272 pages
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Oates exercises her experience, her detail-oriented nature and a good dose of humor to confront the challenges of managing multiple homes at once. Aware that the purpose of most second homes is fun and relaxation, Oates stresses a casual and comfy approach to decorating, housekeeping and entertaining—without losing focus on the fact that running a home away from home takes a certain amount of undivided attention. Apart from the obvious must-dos, such as decorating, securing and managing utilities and implementing a system for closing up and caring for the home during off-season, she addresses the niggling things new or potential second-home owners might not have considered. For example, finding dependable craftsmen, a local hairstylist and a dog groomer can be difficult when you're away from the city or suburbs. Some of Oates's tips are gold—like how to keep a kitchen stocked so that you can immediately fix a decent meal upon arriving, or how to deal tactfully with people who want to borrow your vacation home while you're not there. All of this valuable information is presented in an easy-to-read, entertaining. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“Even if you don’t have a second home, you need this book. Marylouise Oates tells you how to deal with everyone from plumbers (feed them well) to drop in guests (have plenty of white towels on hand), and along the way she demonstrates that all the little emergencies of life can be a whole lot less of a hassle than you ever imagined.”
—Ruth Reichl, bestselling author of Comfort Me with Apples and editor in chief of Gourmet
About the Author
Marylouise Oates is a journalist who is the former society columnist for the Los Angeles Times and the author of Making Peace. She is married to Democratic political consultant, commentator and author Robert Shrum, with whom she has enjoyed homes and second homes in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, New York City, Cape Cod and on the Jersey shore.
Customer Reviews
A Must Read For All Those Who Struggle With Any Home...
Marylouise Oates has written "the book" on second home but in the process has filled the book with helpful hints for any home! I plan to leave my copy on the table for all my weekend guests to help them know good behavior! Her advice constantly reassured me of my own decisions on weekend entertaining and drawing the line. The book is extremely well written, funny and a must read. Hopefully the publisher will see the wisdom of a series of "Marylouise Books...". Move over Martha!
Empty cliche's galore.
The author has a very repetative style which goes like this; Your second house is not a castle!! Nor is a barn!!! It is a home away from home!!!! Every paragraph follows the same "third time is the charm" format, not this, not this, BUT THIS!!!!
What is worst is the author relates everything in cliche' terminology and writes as is the reader was her ego. There is the constant tales of the four types of "flawed" persons "we" are not like; the rich person, the organized person, the control freak,and the minimalist. We are not like "those" people we are like "the rest of us". In a way it is very condesending because she assumes no one other than "us" has the correct balance in life. The book is lined with advice on dealing with the above mentioned "imperfects", i.e. "don't fret if your windows don't sparkle like your neighboors, you are not a control freak like them" It is very obvious "life" to her is a charade or a show for others to see and judge.
The way she speaks about "entertaining" is most unreal, she acts as though she doesn't even know who her guests are and is only fulfilling the status-quo by "entertaining". There is no talk of life-long friends, long-lost friends or having a good time, just what rules to enforce when "entertaining". Personally I have friends visit, I do not "entertain". I don't even know what "entertaining" is besides something circus clowns do. She seems to think when people come visit her that she is in charge iof them. I invite friends to my house and try to make them comfortable. I do not give them a list of "house rules" or tell them which rooms they may use at which hours nor do i give them a time that "the house retires for the night". Personally if I encountered a host like this, I would not hesitate a second to check into the nearest Motel 6. I hope there are few people who think like this.
Where the book totally fails is in giving hard advice; To rent or not? Buy or rent? To renovate or relocate? What utilities are best? What appliances to get? How to get insurance. How to arrange for a caretaker. How to winterize your summer home. How to reduce expenses. Really the only advice she gives is the type of stuff people like to decide themselves. Stuff like how to incorperate your hobbies or interests is spelled out. Advice on painting the place in your favorite colors which you wouldn't do your main residence in and so on.
In short, this is a self obsesed auto-biography of someone going through the mundane, pedestrian motions of acquiring and finishing a second house. Make your own story, don't buy this one.
This Did Not Meet My Needs...
I did not like this book. I found the writing style to be tiresome and outdated; and the majority of the "information" to be useless. For example, who needs a 'movie list' of stale titles preferred by the author? I was looking for a book of practical, useful information and received maybe 4 pages worth in this book. The rest were useless antedotes and personal references pertaining to the author which although I'm sure were entertaining to her to see in print, was boring waste of time for me to read. You'll find my copy on Ebay.
