Homing Instinct: Using Your Lifestyle to Design and Build Your Home

by John Connell

Book Overview

For true hands-on builders and armchair architects--a fully illustrated guidebook to every aspect of planning, designing, and constructing a home, written by the visionary co-founder of the Yestermorrow Design/Building School. Includes questionnaires that help readers identify sequences of their lives. Illustrated.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446516074
• ISBN13: 9780446516075
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Warner Books (NY)
• Length: 404 Pages
• Weight: 3.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 11.0" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

most useful book so far for EVERY home owner

i'm in the process of building a second home for our family. at first, i was very afraid that going to an architect, an "expert" was going to be expensive and potentially frustrating - how could they know what i wanted, how could i know to trust that they were "that" good and wouldn't charge me an arm and a leg for some design-y house? this book provided the education - the vocabulary, the concepts, the rationale - that any non-architect needs. after reading its chapters, i feel more confident both in my own ability to find the right architect and building professionals, and that i really do want to work with an architect. even if you aren't building a house, this book will help you understand the one you currently have. it gives you enough context so that, the next time you see a funny stain on the floor, you'll be able to better guess if its water or a present from the dog.

Fun, Comprehensive and Green!

Y2K might be topical, but "Homing Instinct"(McGraw Hill) is evergreen. Connell, founder of the Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Warren, Vermont recently updated the original book published by Time Warner in 1993 (see author's review). Yestermorrow students learn skills and philosophies necessary for designing or building a home. "Homing Instinct" is the next best thing to a month at building camp. Anyone planning to bypass architectural services can benefit from this conversational text with clear illustrations and imaginative chapter titles like: "A Window for Your Spririt, A Door for the Dance" or "Walls and Wallness". And don't skip the glossary. Someday a "Jeopardy!" title might hinge on mortise, kerf or zonohedra!

Just One Builder's Opinion

As a residential designer and builder I read a lot of how-to books and this is the first and only one of its kind - informative as well as entertaining. I picked it up after dinner one evening and when I next looked up it was four in the morning! Homing Instinct seems to have it all - stick building, timber framing, log homes, straw bales....even geodesic domes. It covers the foundation work, the energy systems, plumbing, electrical and , best of all, gives loads of alternatives in every area. Connell writes in a very humorous way which is refreshingly different from so many techno-texts. And the illustrations by themselves are worth the price. I know it's just one guy's opinion, but I think this book is worth half a dozen of those others.

Commentary on Homing Instinct

For those among us with the burning passion to design and build a home of our own, this is a "must have" book. John Connell makes the daunting task of creating a unique place for ourselve into a journey of personal understanding complete with pencil, tape measure and tool belt. Do you like to wake up with the sun in your face and have coffee only a few steps away? Or would you prefer to awaken slowly drifting into consciousness as you slip from bed into a hot tub? No rubber stamp house offers you the chance to consider such questions. Everything you need to do the job is clearly written out with very entertaining illustrations by the author. On top of that, it's a really fun read! I loved it!

Well worth the read..

If you are going to build your own home, then reading this book is an investment in your future. It will take you step-by-step thru the process of tailoring the building and site to fit you and your family for years to come. From where the building will sit on the site, to deciding how to create living spaces that fit your living both now, and in the future.