This post is sponsored by Quarto Books
Everyone knows the do-it-yourselfer, that girl or guy who always has a project going on. These books are perfect gifts for the D-I-Y’er on your list:
The ubiquitous five-gallon bucket can do more than carry things! It can also be hacked, hot-rodded, reengineered, and upcycled to create dozens of useful DIY projects for homeowners, gardeners, and hobbyists. Each project has simple step-by-step instructions, as well as parts lists and images of the completed projects. The wealth of projects collected in this book includes inventions that range from useful to just plain fun, and from as simple as it gets to fairly involved. These can serve apartment dwellers (Small-Room Air Conditioner, page 12); homeowners (Cyclone Dust Collector, page 34) and their children (Air Cannon, page 94); small farmers (Chicken Feeder, page 72); hobbyists (Post-Mounted Birdhouse, page 137); and even back-to-the-land homesteaders and survivalists (Camping and Composting Toilet, page 48). The odds are good you’ll find something to make that’s fun and handy! Available for purchase at Quarto and retails for $19.95. It is also available at Amazon.com in paperback or for Kindle.
Every homeowner should know the answer to these questions, and many more, but keeping up with every little thing can be a challenge. It helps if you have a system! That’s where the Black & Decker Home Planner & Logbook comes in. This book tells you what you need to know, how to get the information, and gives you lots of room to keep records about everything you do to your home, including:
- House History
- Financial Information and Warranties
- Scheduled Maintenance Log
- Appliances
- Heating & Cooling
- Repair Projects
- Decorative Log including Paint & Floor Coverings
- Outdoor Areas & Home Exterior
Why not just use a blank notebook? Because the Black & Decker Home Planner & Logbook is full of photos, illustrations, and tips to help you decode every system in your house, such as how to read a water meter or estimate the shelf life of paint.
The book is organized in four segments. The first three, “Understanding Your Home”, “Your Home’s Systems”, and “Your Appliances” gives a tour of the various components and systems of a home that need ongoing vigilance, inspection and maintenance. These are organized with intuitive logic, starting from the roof, moving down to the foundations and landscape, then moving indoors to examine the structural and surface elements, like walls and floors, and examining the appliances and other add-ons. The fourth section, “Home Logbook” is the journal itself, where the homeowner can document everything that has been done to the home, or who to call when your home needs attention.
Two large pockets attached to the back cover help you securely store receipts, warranties, manuals, and other documents, so you won’t have to scramble to find your plumber’s phone number during an emergency! Whether you’re an avid-do-it-yourselfer or a novice to the complexities of owning a home, the Black & Decker Home Planner & Logbook is the all-in-one repository for keeping track of everything that’s done to your home
Preview the book here: http://bit.ly/1FxvmWT Available for purchase at Quarto and retails for $24.99. Also available on Amazon.com in Flexbound.
Parents and young kids now have a go-to resource to get started on raising chickens, pigs, sheep, goats, cows, horses, and rabbits. Written so parents and kids can read the book together, it’s filled with essential information, from choosing the right ones animals, to the work, time, and space that’s needed. Each chapter on each animal has four sections. “What Makes Them Tick” discusses food and water needs, hygiene, instincts and the animals’ social needs. “What Makes Them Sick” includes signs and causes of illness, medical supplies and vaccination info. “Where Do They Live” covers housing the animals. “What Can They Give” covers just that – from the various by products each animal gives – from food to milk to the usefulness of excrement.
Kids have helped take care of animals for generations, learning responsibility and self-reliance in the process. Barnyard Kids gives kids and parents the tools to dream about and plan for raising farm animals, empowering anyone who reads it to imagine a life with farm animals and make it real.
Preview the book here: http://bit.ly/BarnyardKidsPDF Available for purchase at Quarto and retails for $24.99. Also available at Amazon.com in Flexbound and for Kindle.
Leave a Reply