 Are you a home user or are you planning to be? When you’re serious about a house, whether buying, building or remodeling, have you thought about what it would be like to live in it? Will it truly be your dream home? In other words, will it be user friendly? Most of us consider things like the commute and, of course, what the monthly payments will be. But living in a home, actually using it, involves much more than that. Will the house make the daily routine thoroughly enjoyable or will there be irritations or even a real pain in the neck? We can help you figure those things out ahead of time. We think people should have good homes, ones that are more enjoyable to live in. But it¹s very much up to buyers to see that they do. (The right real estate agents and some builders can be a godsend here, but these are usually hard to find. And if you find a real estate agent who points these things out to you when you¹re looking at houses, pin a rose on him/her. It¹s something most of them don¹t do because they¹re trying to sell the house, not to "kill the sale" by showing you what's wrong.) User-friendliness is not the subject of ads selling houses. How it looks is. People have become so used to pretty pictures and curb appeal that they don¹t look at the things that they¹ll have to live with...until it¹s too late. And then they find out the hard way by having to put up with it day in and day out.
There are two bonus checklists, one for an existing house and one for a house yet to be built. For people buying a pre-owned or a tract house, that checklist goes through a house, with tips about what to watch for when shopping. For those getting a custom house, an owner-builder or other house not yet built, the tips can be applied before construction starts. And note that either checklist is free when the book is ordered directly from Home User Press. (Order Here) We’ve included a number of photographs throughout this site to give you a better understanding of the kinds of things that are covered in the book, things you seldom see mentioned, things that are just plain user unfriendly. Want to know more? Here are our suggestions for understanding what the book does and how it can help you:
- Take the Fun Quiz. It’s an entertaining and enlightening 10 questions about some things that are common in houses that you’d rather not have to live with.
- Look at what’s in the book (Better Houses, Better Living).
- Check out the Bonus Checklists.
- The Internet is used extensively to help readers get as much information as they feel they need for their project. (The Supplements have supplemental data for book readers and the Internet Resources are websites referenced in the text of Better Houses, Better Living.)
- Our Site Map page will give you a overview of the other pages on this site to give you a better feel about how helpful the book and this website can be for you.
- And don’t overlook the The BHBL Blog page. Here you’ll find info that’s not in the book but which could be helpful to you. And don’t hesitate to let us know about anything you think other homebuyers could use.
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