Books

The Small Garden
Best Loved Garden Plants
The Complete Encyclopedia of Gardening
The Lost Gardens of Heligan [AUDIOBOOK]
Up Th Garden Path
Floral Garden (Suitable for Framing S.)
Flowers: Growing, Drying, Preserving
New Gardening
Highgrove: Portrait of an Estate
Eco-friendly Houseplants: 50 Indoor Plants That Purify the Air
The English Cottage Garden (Country S.)
Up the Garden Path: A Little Anthology
The Complete Guide to Gardening (Practical Handbook)
Growing Squashes and Pumpkins (Kitchen Garden Library)
Growing Root Vegetables (Kitchen Garden Library)
Garden Wisdom: Hints and Tips for Today's Organic Gardener
Garden Structures
The Complete Guide to Growing Cacti and Succulents: A Comprehensive Guide to Identification, Care and Cultivation
New Country Garden Compact
Practical Gardening Handbook: Orchids (Practical Gardening Handbook)
The Gardener's Year: A Step-by-step Practical Guide and Work Planner for Maximum Success and Enjoyment Thoughout the Seasons
Growing Bulb Vegetables
Growing Shoots, Peas and Beans
Containers: A Practical Guide to Creating Beautiful Pots for Every Season (Green-fingered Gardener S.)
Fabulous Flowers: Displaying Fresh and Dried Flowers with Practical Techniques and Over 60 Step-by-step Arrangements

Average customer rating:

Very Inspiring
Small spaces beautiful gardens
readable and helpful
A great ideas for small gardens
Esthetically engaging and pleasureable

Small Spaces, Beautiful Gardens
Keith Davitt
Manufacturer: Quarry Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Gardening in Small Spaces : Creative Ideas from America's Best Gardeners (Fine Gardening Design Guides)
Beyond the Lawn: Unique Outdoor Spaces for Modern Living
Landscaping Small Spaces
Urban Sanctuaries: Peaceful Havens for the City Gardener
Patio: Garden Design & Inspiration

ASIN: 1564969738

Amazon.com

Keith Davitt's Small Spaces, Beautiful Gardens celebrates the possibilities for awkward, undersized garden parcels, demonstrating convincingly that no space is too small to make a big impact. Lacking dimensionality, most small gardens can be taken in visually with one glance. Davitt offers solutions for creating a sense of spaciousness and surprise, even in the most cramped, unlikely location.

A landscape designer, builder, photographer, and writer, Davitt draws on 16 projects from his own portfolio. "Before" and "after" photographs help illustrate both the process and principles of reconfiguring an outdoor space. Who could imagine, for example, that as ugly a duckling as a narrow, shaft-like urban lot surrounded on three sides by cinderblocks, painted brick, and metal piping could be transformed into an enchanting series of multi-leveled wood decks, enlivened with container plantings?

Davitt's ideas are all the more convincing because he has photographed the gardens between peak bloom periods. Although spaces are lush with plant life, the book's emphasis is more on design than plant selection. Offering neither budget remedies nor step-by-step technical advice, Small Spaces, Beautiful Gardens is, itself, a beautiful book to pore over for inspiration. --Jennifer Wyatt

Book Description

If you love gardens but don't think you have enough outdoor space to cultivate one, this book is for you. Written by a 20-year veteran of landscape design, this imaginative guide features 18 hardworking profiles of gorgeous small garden paradises. Through step-by step instructions, before-and-after photos, and detailed plans, landscape architect Keith Davitt offers ingenious tips and techniques for creating the illusion of space through terracing, enlarging through dividing, adding texture and color, and more.

Keith Davitt has been designing, building, photographing, and writing about gardens across the U.S. and abroad for 20 years. He recently won the Herald Award for Excellence in Garden Communication, and his gardens and articles have appeared in numerous gardening magazines. He is also the author of the forthcoming Beyond the Lawn. He lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews:

Very Inspiring.......2007-05-28

The author's non-traditional approach to garden design produces exceptional results. Before and after photos beautifully portray his amazing transformations. The author clearly describes the challenges he faced with each garden project, provides an illustration of his solution and then takes you step by step through the transformation process discussing the elements of design he used and how he applied them. I've read several books on landscape design and this is the first one that has truly helped me apply the principles and elements of design to my own garden spaces. My husband and I recently bought a new construction home and we are both excited to begin the transformation of our blank slate yard into a wonderful suburban retreat.

Small spaces beautiful gardens.......2007-05-07

Standard spaces I might see set up at a garden show. Nothing spectacular.

readable and helpful.......2006-04-29

esp for urban small gardens - he makes you think you can do it!

A great ideas for small gardens.......2002-08-29

I found this book to be especially helpful in visualizing small gardens. I wish that he had included some of the plant names used and sample gardening diagrams, but overall it's a great book for ideas.

Esthetically engaging and pleasureable.......2002-08-05

The simplicity with which Keith Davitt has been able to convey complicated design concepts is extraordinary. He has combined this with exquisite illustrations and "before and after" photography. This book will inspire you with the confidence to transform even the most mundane of spaces into a visual and livable joy. It's also a must on our coffee table!

Perelandra Garden Workbook: A Complete Guide to Gardening with Nature Intelligences

Average customer rating:

Reality Check.
Amazing and Enlightening
The other part of life.
A great book for learning and practice with Nature.
"Garden" redefined!

Perelandra Garden Workbook: A Complete Guide to Gardening with Nature Intelligences
MacHaelle Small Wright
Manufacturer: Perelandra
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Perelandra Garden Workbook II: Co-Creative Energy Processes for Gardening, Agriculture and Life (Perelandra Garden Workbook)
Behaving as if the God in All Life Mattered
MAP: The Co-Creative White Brotherhood Medical Assistance Program
Dancing in the Shadows of the Moon
Flower Essences: Reordering Our Understanding and Approach to Illness and Health

ASIN: 0927978121

Book Description

This is a much-needed, hands-on manual for the gardener who wishes to work in conscious partnership with the overlighting nature intelligences. Based on the author's many years of experience, The Perelandra Garden Workbook is filled with practical techniques, fresh perspectives on traditional organic gardening methods, and an infectious sense of joy and humor.

Interspersed throughout this book are many direct communications from the different levels of nature intelligence. Each reveal universal natural law and a cosmic wisdom applicable not only to gardens dug in soil, but to every garden planted in the larger soil of life experience. Truly, a book for everyone seeking to connect into the larger picture of life.

Customer Reviews:

Reality Check........2006-04-22

If, like most people, you're a weekend gardner and don't have a lot of time, then this book is not for you. And if you do have a lot of time to spend on your garden, then you don't need this book.

Amazing and Enlightening.......2006-04-21

This is an absolutely amazing book that allows anyone involved with gardening to create a perfectly balanced garden that is in perfect harmony with nature.

The author describes useing kinesiology which is a type of muscle testing (virtually the same as using a dowsing rod or a handheld pendulum which i prefer) to contact and communicate with various earth intelligences such as Devas and nature spirits.

The gardener essentially puts 100% of his faith into the hands of these nature spirits and allows them to make virtually every single decision involving the design, planning, implementation, maintenance of the entire garden project! Although it sounds insane, it apparently provides a highly balanced and successful garden compared to the typical human dictatorship over nature typically utilized by 21st century gardeners and farmers.

While reading this book i couldn't help but realize early on that this book has very far reaching implications into many various aspects of humanity such as healing for example. It can be used in so many different ways that could be applied to any subject matter with slight modification of the basic techniques.

I plan on using the processes in this book on a new garden project and find out for myself just how effective it really is. Apparently the author has been doing it and perfecting the techniques for the last 30 years successfully!

I especially would recommend this book to anyone interested in contacting any nature intelligences such as devas, nature spirits, faeries, elementals, etc.. It appears to me that this book (possibly unknowingly) bridges a huge gap between the science behind co-creative gardening and the mystical and magical worlds of the faeries.

The other part of life........2006-02-23

Unless we open up, we will never begin to understand life in all its forms.

A great book for learning and practice with Nature........2003-12-02

This book is higly beneficial to
get practical goals with Nature.
Plants and flowers can really grow
higher and more beautifull than normal.
These are excellent books to read and
practice -Garden Work Books I and II.

"Garden" redefined!.......2001-06-13

I have used both workbooks I and II, and have been amazed at the transformation my garden (and I) experienced. As a novice, I didn't fully understand the information "nature" was sharing with me and went on blind faith. Three years later, as a horticultural student, I have the scientific "aha" of understanding the amendments, plant choices, and design I was given. I admit--this is way out there, and yet it makes so much sense. There is no area--no space--that the principles taught here cannot be applied. Gardenig and Life can be easy, and Machaelle shows you just HOW easy it can be!!

The Way We Garden Now: 41 Pick-and-Choose Projects for Planting Your Paradise Large or Small

Average customer rating:

Fantastic Book!!!
Finally! A gardening book I can really use!

The Way We Garden Now: 41 Pick-and-Choose Projects for Planting Your Paradise Large or Small
Katherine Whiteside
Manufacturer: Clarkson Potter
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Garden Design | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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Mike McGrath's Book of Compost
The Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting and Pruning Techniques
Icebox Cakes
The Victory Garden Companion
Down & Dirty: 43 Fun & Funky First-time Projects & Activities to Get You Gardening

ASIN: 0307351351
Release Date: 2007-02-13

Book Description

Energizing, Inspiring, Edible, and Exciting: That’s what bestselling author Katherine Whiteside says gardening ought to be. Whether you have a half acre of land in the country or a tiny patch of grass in the city, whether you’re an experienced digger or you’ve never held a trowel, Whiteside offers forty-one versatile projects that will make anyone into a proud gardener.

In The Way We Garden Now, Whiteside, known as House Beautiful’s Garden Goddess, tackles every aspect of creating beautiful and personal gardens, from making a new bed to adding decorative details. Always down-to-earth, Whiteside believes that “fretting over having a perfect garden is not fun, but getting out there and accomplishing basic garden goals will always leave you happily fulfilled.” To that end, she shows how to create the garden that’s just right for you by mixing and matching projects according to your skill level, space limitations, climate, and even how much time you have. The Way We Garden Now is graced with whimsical watercolors, fun sidebars, and Whiteside’s expert tips. In five accessible sections, she teaches you how to:

-Get going with ten easy, manageable projects that will turn your yard into a garden while helping you master basic garden chores
-Surmount design dilemmas with solutions such
as hedges, paths, and patios
-Organize ornamentals—from containers to a
cutting garden
-Add edibles: Start a small salad garden that can evolve into an organic herb and vegetable potager
-Be a gardener for all seasons with summer bulbs, winter gardens, spring shows, and more...

With all the information about the supplies you’ll need, preparations to make, and even a helpful rating of how big an undertaking each project is, this is an indispensable book from a wise and witty mentor—a gardener who has been there and tried that.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic Book!!!.......2007-05-15

I loved this book! I read it in a weekend (very easy read) and will be reading tid bits of it throughout the year. It has great tips to be used throughout the entire year - for every season! The book shows you how to start beds from scratch, plant flowers, bulbs, gardens, how to make and use compost, container gardens, gardening journals, etc. Loads of information that can really come in handy. If you want a book full of lovely full page photos... this isn't the book for you. This is a very useable do it yourself book chuck full of information. The book has no photos but has beautifully drawn illustrations. This one's a keeper!!

Finally! A gardening book I can really use!.......2007-02-15

I am so thrilled to receive Katherine Whiteside's new book! This book is a great way to gear up to start a new project, and it will see you right through the whole process. It makes sense of gardening in all forms and gives you information you really can use.
This book is as pretty as it is useful and informative! I'd give it 10 stars!!

Average customer rating:

Japanese Gardening in Small Spaces
Japanese garden
AUTHENTIC AND INSPIRATIONAL
Great Ideas... Too Complex
An Excellent Manual

Japanese Gardening in Small Spaces
Isao Yoshikawa
Manufacturer: Japan Publications Trading
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Creating Your Own Japanese Garden
Ortho's All About Creating Japanese Gardens (Ortho's All About Gardening)
A Japanese Touch for Your Garden
Japanese Gardens in a Weekend: Projects for One, Two or Three Weekends (In a Weekend)
Landscapes for Small Spaces: Japanese Countryard Gardens

ASIN: 0870409778

Book Description

A practical guide to planning and constructing a Japanese garden at home. Step-by-step instructions explain every facet, from displaying plants and rocks to mastering drainage and lighting to creating bamboo fences and hedges.

Customer Reviews:

Japanese Gardening in Small Spaces.......2007-05-14

This is an excellent book for anyone planning to build their own garden. The instructions for creating the various elements of the garden made it look easy, and the descriptions given for items that become a part of the garden I found quite interesting. I would have liked even more finished garden pictures as I was only looking for inspiration. But, even with out as many pictures as I would have like, the book was helpful and my garden is now complete, giving me the tranquility I was looking for.

Japanese garden.......2006-12-19

You will find inside a lot of inspiration on how to make things work. Exceptional "do it yourself" recommendations. Its a real guidebook for japanese gardening lovers.

AUTHENTIC AND INSPIRATIONAL.......2005-10-07

I picked up about ten books on Japanese gardening at the library and this book was by far the most inspirational. The author gives definitions for technical terms and also shows step by step illustrations to recreate various photographs within the book. He also shows how to make a bamboo fence which I thought was really neat and I am actually going to give it a try. This is the only book I decided to purchase out of the lot from the library and I plan on giving a few copies as gifts.

Great Ideas... Too Complex.......2004-06-09

As much as I liked the pictures and the possibilities of the gardens, there's no chance that the average person could even attempt some of the Japanese style gardens. The designs are beautiful but you really do need a LOT of room to do any of these designs. The idea of a calming, tranquil space to sit would be wonderful but not on my budget.

An Excellent Manual.......2001-10-10

Sorry, my english is no good. I'm a chilean landscaper and I bought this book about 2 month ago and it can help me in many ways for my job. Have a lot of details of how to do fences and other triks with good photos.

Average customer rating:

Small Buildings, Small Gardens
Gordon Hayward
Manufacturer: Gibbs Smith, Publisher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Garden Design | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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The Welcoming Garden
Tending Your Garden: A Year-Round Guide to Garden Maintenance
Your House, Your Garden: A Foolproof Approach to Garden Design
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The Intimate Garden: Twenty Years and Four Seasons in Our Garden

ASIN: 1586857053

Book Description

Plan and engaging garden in harmony with built structures

Average customer rating:

Makes everything so clear
Covers all of the essentials of 'how to'
great book
How to Build Small Barns & Outbuildings
Excellent Building Guide

How to Build Small Barns & Outbuildings
Monte Burch
Manufacturer: Storey Publishing, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Outdoor & Recreational Areas | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

Building Small Barns, Sheds & Shelters
Practical Pole Building Construction: With Plans for Barns, Cabins, & Outbuildings
Barns, Sheds and Outbuildings: Plan, Design, Build
Building a Multi-Use Barn: For Garage, Animals, Workshop, Studio
Small Barn Plans for Owner-Builders

ASIN: 0882667734

Book Description

Building your own barns and outbuildings offers many benefits, perhaps the most obvious being the money you can save. About half the costs of any building project is the labor, and, by doing it yourself, you can construct your building more economically, or even put up a larger building on the same budget.

But another important benefit of building it yourself is the satisfaction that comes from improving your own landscape and surroundings. A well-constructed barn, shed, or outbuilding can be a source of pride for many years -- and will also enhance the value of your property.

In How to Build Small Barns & Outbuildings, Monte Burch takes readers step by step through the fundamentals of general construction -- from planning and laying out a site to do-it-yourself instructions on framing, roofing, wiring, plumbing, and much more.

Customer Reviews:

Makes everything so clear.......2006-01-01

Clear writing, accompanied by excellent illustrations for all the steps. Everything is included: planning, foundation, material, tools, foundation, windows, wiring and finishing. If you're a newbie, you're not wasting your money by buying this.

Covers all of the essentials of 'how to'.......2005-08-25

This book is written with simple jargon, clear illustrations and concise instructions. A great spring-board book for those new to construction.

great book.......2003-06-19

I never built a building before, I did help build a deck.
I bought this book to build a small music studio (16'x24')
and it was easy to read. It had everything I needed in it to build the building and the project came out great. After reading this book you will think it is easy to build small buildings.

How to Build Small Barns & Outbuildings.......2000-11-18

This is a great general building reference book. I pull it out whenever I'm starting something new or if I want a refresher. This book has helpful detailed information on all phases of building design and construction. This includes: 1. Foundation design layout and pouring for slabs, piers, & footings of all sorts; 2. Framing design & construction-- whether pole or platform framing, roof trusses or rafters; 3. Siding & roofing options, design & construction details for each; 4. Wiring details from power to the service panel to switches, lighting and outlets; 5.Plumbing from the well to the septic leach field.

It also has over 20 plans for various buildings ranging from pole barns and equipment sheds to guest houses, garages and studios. I have built several sheds from plans in this book and plan to build more.

Excellent Building Guide.......2000-04-09

I was interested in learning how to build a outdoor storage/workshop building. This book gave me a great foundation. With it's acurate how to list, materials and dimensions, it give confidence to all do it yourselfers. I felt that the step by step from supplies to completion really proved invaluable. I would suggest this book to anyone interested in building their own buildings. I look forward to trying out the next design, a green house/garden shed. I feel this book should be apart of all libraries.

Landscapes for Small Spaces: Japanese Countryard Gardens

Average customer rating:

Nice pictures
faulty product
Beyond the basics, Japanese Garden Book
A book to inspire you

Landscapes for Small Spaces: Japanese Countryard Gardens
Katsuhiko Mizuno
Manufacturer: Kodansha International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The New Zen Garden: Designing Quiet Spaces
Creating Your Own Japanese Garden
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The Modern Japanese Garden

ASIN: 4770028741

Book Description

Japanese gardening is the art of arranging plants, rocks, lanterns, and basins in an open or, as here, an enclosed space. According to the aesthetic principles long prevailing in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, even two rocks arranged in a tiny, enclosed space can be considered a garden. This type of garden is called a tsuboniwa, and Kyoto has long being considered its birthplace and home. So it is not surprising that photographer Katsuhiko Mizuno, wishing to capture the best of such small gardens, should turn to Kyoto and its palaces, temples, shrines, and townhouses.

The highlight of the book is the 100 photographs of these tsuboniwa -- snow overlying sand patterns; autumnal maple leaves; flowering cherry trees; lanterns, basins, fences; gardens featuring wisteria, azalea, hydrangea, Indian lilac, camellia, and daphne. Each photo is accompanied by an informative caption pointing out the outstanding characteristics of the garden in question.

An appendix gives Mizuno's instructions for creating a tsuboniwa, based on his personal experience. His account of the underlying concepts, design, choice of plants, and practical procedures will prove an invaluable reference for all garden creators, from amateur to professional.

Customer Reviews:

Nice pictures.......2006-06-29

This book is not only a great picture book, but it also provides wonderful descriptions of the Japanese gardens featured - succinct and informative. If you like landscaping with the Japanese feel, you'll enjoy this book.

faulty product.......2006-02-24

The book is excellent but the dust cover was torn obviously before despatch as the packaging was good.
The disappointment was that there was no method of complaint other than returning the product. From Australia to USA not practible.

Beyond the basics, Japanese Garden Book.......2006-01-19

I've been through a lot of Japanese gardening books, and many of been a little repetitive, covering the basic design elements and what not. Mizuno has put together a great "Intermediate" read once you've had enough of the basics. The pictures are some of the best available of authentic Japanese gardens, and the captions are short and to the point but with just enough plant identifications to be useful to someone in their planning stage.

Perhaps the best feature of this book is the introductory discussion on the "Omoteya style" town home (traditional Japanese merchant class town home). The text suggest there is a conservation movement to this vanishing style of Japanese home that mirrors the affection American's are beginning to culture towards the Bungalow. As the Omoteya styled homes share similar dimensions with the American city lot (diagrams are provided with the text), this book is a fabulous resource to urban dwellers looking to incorporate the Japanese garden concept to their grassy postage stamp.

A book to inspire you.......2003-10-31

Beautiful pictures and good text. It doesn't contain "how to do" tips but there is a chapter on how the author build one tsuboniwa in a Kyoto house.

Average customer rating:

Eh.
Good Starter Book

Small Garden
John Brookes
Manufacturer: DK ADULT
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Well-Designed Garden
Gardens by Design
Small Space Gardens
Small Spaces, Beautiful Gardens
Small Urban Gardens (Evergreen)

ASIN: 0756617235

Book Description

The dean of garden design gives you all you need to know to create the garden of your dreams, even if you have only a balcony, rooftop, or a small yard to plant. Using a variety of structural materials and designs with appropriate plants, a small area can be developed into an extension of your home.

Customer Reviews:

Eh........2006-11-05

There are other, better books on the small garden out there. This book is filled with obvious statements e.g. "choose plants and containers that suit the style of your window space." Duh. The words and the design solution aren't the reason I bought the book. I bought it because first of all, there are a lot of pretty pictures. It's nice to page through if I'm bored or need a break. It's something to page through in 5 minutes. The second reason I bought the book is that I was really impressed with John Brookes years ago, before I had any training in design. I loved his gardens. So I wanted this book to see what he was up to. Nostalgia, really. Take it for what it's worth as part of a library. Other books to check out: David Stevens' Small Space Gardens, Joan Clifton's Courtyard & Terrace Gardens, James Grayson Trulove's Pocket Gardens, Katsuhiko Mizuno's Landscapes for Small Spaces: Japanese Courtyard Gardens, and Jamie Durie's The Outdoor Room, to name just a few.

Good Starter Book.......2006-07-23

This was a very good introductory book for a beginner like myself to basic principles of garden designing for small spaces. Brookes has separated the major concepts into six easy to read chapters: linking living/outdoor space, style, case studies, design (planning), structure (ground pattern, paving, fencing, furnishings) and planting. Each well-written chapter is accompanied by beautiful pictures to illustrate his point. I've tabbed more ideas from this book, than from any of my other books on garden design. If you are a beginner and have a small or tiny back-yard or no back-yard (roof top, apartment terrace), really consider getting this book.

Decorating Small Spaces: Live Large in Any Space (Better Homes & Gardens)

Average customer rating:

Some helpful ideas!
Great tips and photos
Some Drawbacks, But Great Photos for Ideas
There are some good areas of the book...
Decent Book With Great Tips

Decorating Small Spaces: Live Large in Any Space (Better Homes & Gardens)
Better Homes and Gardens
Manufacturer: Better Homes and Gardens
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Decorating | Interior Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Decoration & Ornament | Interior Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

Living Large in Small Spaces: Expressing Personal Style in 100 to 1,000 Square Feet
Big Ideas for Small Spaces
Compact Living
Small Spaces: Stylish Ideas for Making More of Less in the Home
Small Spaces: Good Ideas

ASIN: 0696218615
Release Date: 2004-01-06

Book Description

How to apply basic principles for enhancing small spaces.

Room-by-room details for living areas, dining spaces, kitchens, bedrooms, baths, workstations, and more.

Ideas to arrange furniture, manage clutter, create illusion, convert for several purposes, and use color, pattern and texture effectively.

Whole-house tours showcase decorating principals that work in small spaces.

Shows how color palettes unify spaces throughout a house.

Includes a room arranging kit.

Customer Reviews:

Some helpful ideas!.......2007-03-06

I think the book is worthwhile...even if just for the photos...in the case of those that have some concept of how to put things together or make those photos come to life. I was inspired by several pictures that I plan to implement. However there may be those who find the book is lacking in detail as to how to create some of the purposed ideas...so in that respect it may be frustrating. The book doesn't focus enough in my opinion on small spaces...as much as it does on being more organized & utilizing creative organizational methods to enhance a space. It appears that some of the rooms could be categorized as medium to large in some cases...so I deducted points for BH&G for not adhering to sticking to the main so called objective of the book. Overall I'd recommend the book though...however try finding it on sale to ease your conscience.

Great tips and photos.......2006-05-18

The book's strong points are the photos and some of the practical tips and ideas. It's not an easy read so I don't see myself reading it again, but I will flip through it from time to time to get ideas from the pictures.

Some Drawbacks, But Great Photos for Ideas.......2006-04-07

I gave this 4 stars on the wealth of large, colorful photos and the ideas you can get from those.
Had to knock off one star for the difficulty of reading the text. Sentences 25 to 35 words long are difficult to digest (and I have a masters degree). The photo captions are grouped together, forcing the eye to jump back and forth trying to see what is being described. Even the picture captions are such dense text that they require re-reading to figure out what the author is saying. By page 100, I'd abandoned the text and just examined the photos.
There are some great ideas to be gleaned from this book. I liked the sliding mirror that revealed a television inset into a bedroom wall. Also great was the hidden storage in stair treads. It's too bad that the text just didn't flow well.

There are some good areas of the book..........2006-02-14

There are some good areas in the book, but overall its more about living cluttered not large in any space, much less a small space. For me the book seems to be aimed toward middle America who needs lots of stuff, rather than a peaceful simple abode. To many of the rooms shown have to much 'stuff'.

Very few of the rooms with windows shown have windows that are unblocked and allowing light to bathe the room. Something those of us who live in small cottages know makes for a bright and cheery place. Instead they often have shelves with stuff on them or stuff on the windowsills themselves. What I call dust catchers.

And on page 114 there is a loft style bed for a child yet the child shown is a toddler whom I would never put in a bed almost five feet off the ground. But its a great design for an older child. And there are a few simple and lovely places shown but not enough for my tastes and needs, since I am checking books out not because I want to look at pretty pictures, but because I need some ideas for a place I am planning on building

Decent Book With Great Tips.......2005-10-25

For me THE GREATEST part of the book are pages 184-190, where you can create a layout of a room with the graph paper and cut outs that are included in the book!

Although the book gave good tips in laymens terms, I didn't really care for some of the pictures. Since I'm a first time homebuyer, most new developments in my area already have great kitchens & baths (stainless steel appliances, jacuzzi tubs, hardwood floors, marble countertops) so I was looking for a little inspiration from pictures in this book that I didn't get.

How to Buy and Manage Rental Properties: The Milin Method of Real Estate Management for the Small Investor

Average customer rating:

Dynamic Duo?
Are we reading the same book?
The people who conned us out of our house probably read this
Buy a different book.
Covers a niche market: a niche you would not want to go...

How to Buy and Manage Rental Properties: The Milin Method of Real Estate Management for the Small Investor
Irene Milin , and Mike Milin
Manufacturer: Fireside
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0671644238

Book Description

Mike and Irene Milin are the world's most successful couple in real estate education, the "Dynamic Duo" whose amazing sellout seminars in real estate management have shown thousands across the country how to find, purchase, and rent properties -- and let their tenants do the work!

Now the Milins have put their practical, time-tested techniques into a book, How to Buy and Manage Rental Properties. They show you how to use the Milin Method to avoid problems and expenses while keeping the money coming in -- the Milin promise is financial freedom in two to three years! How to Buy and Manage Rental Properties will show you how you can get tenants involved in the maintenance of your rental properties -- the remarkable "hands-off" strategies that put your properties on auto pilot, leaving you the time to achieve more as a real estate entrepreneur. Their program covers in detail all aspects of buying, financing, maintaining, and renting properties, including:

* Managing people, not property

* Buying right to manage right

* Rental interviews and agreements

* Keeping good tenants, and getting rid of bad ones

* Bookkeeping, taxes, and property tracking

* Real estate agents and property sales

* Equity sharing and partnerships

It's all here in a guide you can easily read and refer to -- the best, most comprehensive program of buying and rental techniques ever developed, detailing sound and sensible ways to protect your investments and get the most out of your properties with the least trouble.

Customer Reviews:

Dynamic Duo?.......2007-01-12

There are many awesome books from Amazon but this is not one of them. This book is very informative, interesting as well as enlightening though how they, the authors, think and act.

People are not animals. Where is dignity? This book gives landlords a bad name and the industry of renting.

The cover is well done and that is misleading. The contents is degrading and lacks soul. Ethics?

The majority of landlords do not run their rentals like this.

Are we reading the same book?.......2006-01-16

This book was my landlord bible when we started in 1998. I would trade in a dozen of my other real estate books before giving up this one. You can't get a more information-packed book than this for the price of a Starbuck's coffee! I created all my rental forms and my rental agreement with this little handbook. Of course, my letters and agreement have been modified with the times but this book was indispensable advice for us first-time landlords. There may be better books out there today but I have to give credit where credit is due. This book was the backbone to our aspirations and success today.

The people who conned us out of our house probably read this.......2004-12-15

This book will go into the circular file, if you know what I mean. It is difficult for me to understand why there are so many people like this who only see others as dollar signs and 'pets' (as they call renters) they can take advantage of. I will NOT be using their con strategies as a landlord. I hate the idea about leading someone to believe your office is in a building but you not even having one. We unfortunately were duped like this except the guy had a post office box that he led us to believe was his 'office suite.' Whatever. Just don't buy this book, instead look for a book that is morally and ethically teaching you how to provide a good service or product in this world and your business will then flourish!

Buy a different book........2004-03-09

The vast majority of the authors' properties are in Arizona, which I believe is economically depressed for the most part. Since I live in California, a large portion of what they advise is either illegal or impossible to apply. The Milins know this, and a lot of their advice has caveats about California. In particular, a landlord's ability to evict tenants in this state is severely curtailed compared to the Milins' policies. They suggest buying property in a state where the laws favor landlords instead.

While I can believe that some of these techniques may work in the particular market they're in (I wouldn't know since I borrowed this book because I am about to become a landlord), the Milins are clearly elitists whose main sense of pride is in their ability to make a lot of money, and not so much in their personal integrity and general respect for others. Their policies and relationships with tentants, as described, are incredibly manipulative.

One piece of advice is only to have month-to-month rental agreements. Around here rental prices are really expensive, and the rental market fluctuates wildly. So I don't see how tenants would accept no lease agreement around here.

Their typical lease agreement has restrictions like, tenants can't put ANY holes in the walls, i.e. not even small nails to hang pictures, or to hang curtains. That's just outrageous to me. What are they supposed to do about window coverings? Tenants aren't allowed privacy?

The Milins advise that you provide no major appliances whatsoever. Certain appliances one is not expected to provide, like Washer/Dryer, but who is going to provide their own cookstove and refrigerator??? When I was a renter, I never had to provide this and there's no way I'd rent a place if I had to provide my own stove and fridge, because it's really expensive, and I'd just have to get rid of them if I moved.

The advice to spend a lot of time up front interviewing renters and going over, line by line, every bit of a contract, I think is good. Also, to spell out everything you can possibly think of in the lease explicitly, is also good but that's just common sense. Put in the time now and it will save you trouble later. Do a credit/background check. Interview, interview, interview. Be clear. Follow your instincts - if you get a bad feeling about someone, don't rent to them.

Furthermore, their sample letters are wordy and condescending. Any normal adult reading it would see through this BS right away, in my opinion.

The bottom line is, I don't know from experience on the landlord side of things, but having been a tenant for 15 years, but I really doubt you have to be such a jerk to have good tenants. If all you care about is how much money you make, then their method may work, and it may not. I say buy a different book with more and better reviews from actual landlords.

Covers a niche market: a niche you would not want to go..........2003-08-12

The book would hardly have any value to you unless to plan to buy hundreds and hundreds of cheap houses in communities "nowhere near the universities" and rent them out to "meek" people who "work with their hands" and do not have time for "annoying questions". Then, just "keep them in awe of you", and collect the rent ruthlessly. I am just starting out as a landlord. I wish I had not read this book...

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