House Works

The updated and highly illustrated guide to understanding how just about everything in your house works! The revised and updated third edition of How Your House Works is a hands-on guide that gives you the low-down on why your faucet is leaking, your dishwasher is overflowing, or your furnace is on the fritz. This comprehensive book is your reference to virtually everything in your house with richly illustrated explanations of electrical systems, heating and air conditioning, plumbing, major household appliances, foundation, framing, doors, and windows. This must-have book answers most questions homeowners face when repairs are needed or when a new house or addition is in your future. How Your House Works is filled with easy-to-understand illustrations that show how things should be put together and how they function. The book also highlights issues outside the house as well as clock thermostats, ventless gas heaters, moisture and mold, and passive solar heating. Using the illustrations and the author’s clear explanations might save you the expense of calling a professional. This invaluable guide: Offers a colorful resource to home electrical systems, HVAC, plumbing, major household appliances, foundation, framing, doors and windows, sustainability, and much more Includes easy-to-follow information for troubleshooting problems Contains dozens of new full-color illustrations Presents new chapters on solar power and smart home technologies Helps homeowners save money on many common household repairs Written for homeowners with little or no knowledge of home maintenance or repair, How Your House Works is your illustrated and updated guide to understanding how appliances, electrical, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, and more work!

Understand how to maintain everything in yourhome—including the kitchen sink How Your House Works, Second Edition reinforces the factthat it pays to be an informed consumer. Knowledge of your home'ssystems helps you control repair and construction costs and makessure the correct elements are being installed or replaced. HowYour House Works uncovers the mysteries behind just about everymajor appliance and building element in your house. Clear,full-color drawings show you exactly how these things should be puttogether and how they function, including what to check if theydon't work. Covering topics such as electrical systems, heating and airconditioning, plumbing, major household appliances, foundation,framing, doors, and windows, this updated Second Edition hasconsiderable additional information, with new chapters related tosustainability in and outside the house, as well as new topics,including clock thermostats, ventless gas heaters, moisture andmold, and passive solar heating. Illustrated guidance on electrical systems, heating and airconditioning, plumbing, major household appliances, foundation,framing, doors, and windows Includes a wealth of additional information, with new chaptersrelated to sustainability and outside the house Features new topics that include clock thermostats, ventlessgas heaters, moisture and mold, LED lamps, motion-activated lightswitches, and passive solar heating Presented in a richly illustrated with full-color drawings With see-through, cross-section drawings that show you howthings are put together and how they function, How Your HouseWorks supplies you with the knowledge that just might save youhaving to call in a professional.

The updated and highly illustrated guide to understanding how just about everything in your house works! The revised and updated third edition of How Your House Works is a hands-on guide that gives you the low-down on why your faucet is leaking, your dishwasher is overflowing, or your furnace is on the fritz. This comprehensive book is your reference to virtually everything in your house with richly illustrated explanations of electrical systems, heating and air conditioning, plumbing, major household appliances, foundation, framing, doors, and windows. This must-have book answers most questions homeowners face when repairs are needed or when a new house or addition is in your future. How Your House Works is filled with easy-to-understand illustrations that show how things should be put together and how they function. The book also highlights issues outside the house as well as clock thermostats, ventless gas heaters, moisture and mold, and passive solar heating. Using the illustrations and the author’s clear explanations might save you the expense of calling a professional. This invaluable guide: Offers a colorful resource to home electrical systems, HVAC, plumbing, major household appliances, foundation, framing, doors and windows, sustainability, and much more Includes easy-to-follow information for troubleshooting problems Contains dozens of new full-color illustrations Presents new chapters on solar power and smart home technologies Helps homeowners save money on many common household repairs Written for homeowners with little or no knowledge of home maintenance or repair, How Your House Works is your illustrated and updated guide to understanding how appliances, electrical, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, and more work!

Conquer the clutter, clean your house and give yourself more time for the good things in life-with this new edition Drowning in clutter, but don't know where to begin? Feeling overwhelmed by a home that's out of control? Help is on hand from the creator of the popular home-management website, OrganizedHome.com. With wit, humor and style, Cynthia Townley Ewer goes about solving the many obstacles of running an orderly home. From how to combat, and stay on top of, the clutter tide, to the most effective tools for, and methods of, cleaning. Plus, pick up tips on the specifics of running an organized home from sections such as food, clothing, surfaces and systems, room to live, and paper handling. Whether you want to know how to tame 'the great white' (fridge, not shark!), or add rhythm to your clothes closet, Cynthia will inform you, entertain you, and very possibly save your sanity along the way.

Presents practical tips and strategies designed to help people organize their home in order to cut down on chaos, clutter, and cleaning time.

If you're tired of staring at the same mess every day, but struggling to find the time and willpower to clean it, you probably have a very good reason: anxiety, fatigue, depression, ADHD, or lack of support. Designed by therapist KC Davis, this revolutionary method of cleaning and organizing helps end the stress-mess cycle. After KC Davis gave birth to her second child, she didn't fold a single piece of laundry for seven months. Between postpartum depression and ADHD, she felt numb and overwhelmed. She regained her sanity--and the functionality of her home--after one life-changing realization: You don't work for your home; your home works for you. In other words, messiness is not a moral failing. A new sense of calm washed over her as she let go of the shame-based messaging that interpreted a pile of dirty laundry as "I can never keep up" and a chaotic kitchen as "I'm a bad mother." Instead, she looked at unwashed clothes and thought, "I am alive," and at stacks of dishes and thought, "I cooked my family dinner three nights in a row." Building on this foundation of self-compassion, KC devised the powerful practical approach that has exploded in popularity through her TikTok account, @domesticblisters. The secret is to stop following perfectionist rules that don't make sense for you--like folding clothes that don't wrinkle anyway, or thinking that every room has to be clean at the same time--and to find creative solutions that accommodate your needs, pet peeves, daily rhythms, and attention span. Inside, you'll learn exactly how to customize your approach and rebuild your relationship with your home, including: -How to stop seeing care tasks as a reflection of your worth, but rather as kindnesses to your future self -How to use calming rituals to keep you from feeling overwhelmed when you look at a big mess -How to stagger tasks that are easy to procrastinate throughout the week and month -How to quickly transform a room from messy to fully functional through the "5 Things" tidying method, and other shortcuts requiring minimal energy Read this book to make home feel like a sanctuary again: where you can move with ease, where guilt, self-criticism, and endless checklists have no place, and where you always have permission to rest, even when things aren't finished.