I loved this book, and wished I had read it before I bought my old house in the city. This is the author's story of her and her husband's adventures in buying a decrepit old house in Lafayette Square, and fixing it up with their own labor (and whatever friends owed them huge favors). The book is a hoot, filled with before, during and after pictures, and it was neat to go see the finished house on the Lafayette Square house tour after finishing it. Strangely enough, the author divorced not long after, and I met her when I was invited to a "blind date" party she hosted through the personal ads at the Riverfront Times. She and I talked about her book, and hit it off. She was too old for me, but I did go out with one of her friends for a while. As an aside, her neighbors are not too happy with her, because she restored the outside of her house in an individualistic way that does not quite mesh with the other now-carefully restored houses. I like what she did, but one can see the neighbor's point a little, too. ( )