Strawbale House

Rosalba picked the book titled “Built Like A Woman” by Sandra Broman when we were looking at books to get more information about building a house. I have to admit that at first I thought that this book would not be very interesting for me.

Having just finished reading it now I have to say though that I would highly recommend this book to anyone (man or woman) that is thinking of building at least parts of a house themselves and has never done so before.

Sandra Broman’s style of writing is very easy to read and feels very personal. Almost as if Sandra was just sitting with you and talking over a cup of tea.

In “Built Like A Woman” Sandra Broman tells you about her own experience of renovating and building houses. Sandra confesses that before she started doing all this type of work she would wait for her husband to come home from work to drill any holes necessary and that she has gone from SEDI (Someone Else Does It) to proper DIY.

The book gives you a positive feeling about building your own house, that it’s not actually that hard, and that most people can do a fair bit themselves. Sandra Broman also included a chapter where she rates most major tasks during the building of a house from “Easy” to “Don’t mess with it”. This chapter gives you a quick primer what you could attempt to do yourself and what you should definitely leave for a professional tradesman.

This book is by no means a reference book but it nevertheless gives you a rough idea what you are getting yourself into when building your own home and at an affordable price of around $30 it is a great book to have.