Welcome to Litsy!

I don't remember where I heard about this book, maybe on a podcast, but I'm so glad I did! As the owner of an old house who has done lots and lots of renovation, I connected with the stories about the author's renovation and her appreciation for old houses. As a married, middle-aged mother, I connected with the stories she tells about her marriage and children. The parallels she draws between the two felt spot on.

I listened to this one chapter at a time and I loved it from start to finish. The author and her husband buy a home in serious disrepair and she details their road to renovating it over the course of many years. My husband and I are one year into remodeling our own home, and I felt kinship with the author in some instances and shock at some of their financial decisions in others. I particularly loved the history of houses and rooms she included.

Mid year check in #readinggoals. Doing good on my nonfiction and overall goal. Gotta work on #serieslove2023

This didn't quite work for me. Memoir of a house renovation along with a social/material history of American domestic architecture & construction. The location is so familiar to me - where I grew up (both Seattle & the Kitsap Peninsula) - but while that should've drawn me in, instead I found it strangely off-putting. I felt like I should've enjoyed it more than I did but it's very low stakes & ultimately not a particularly compelling situation.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ the author and her husband buy a second home in serious disrepair and fix it up. I enjoyed a lot of the practical things about cleaning and renovating the house. The emotional journey and the bits about the house telling her what it needed worked less well for me. I‘m sure money was tight, but that hits different for a couple raising a family and buying and renovating a second home on one income. Between a soft pick and a so-so.

I LOVED this book! 😍 Her fiction books are some of my favorites and this one is now up there as well. She and her family renovate an old house in Port Townsend and she weaves in marriage and motherhood and her writing life as they go. I don't think I'll ever look at a house the same way again. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #greatread

She does not disappoint. A memoir of a renovation she did. The language is as beautiful as ever and the storytelling just as amazing! So far she has not diassapointed!!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I‘ve been on a memoir kick lately and love this one, set in my neck of the woods in the Pacific Northwest. Features a major house renovation and personal revelations discovered along the way.

2nd book of the year. Well written, but ideas were cray. I‘m way to practical to relate.

I really enjoyed this book. I like how she writes and tells a story using many of the senses. I read most of this in part of one day.