The Perfect $100,000 House: A Trip Across America and Back in Pursuit of a Place to Call Home

by Karrie Jacobs

Book Overview

Founding editor in chief of Dwell magazine and noted critic Jacobs chronicles her coast-to-coast search for a well-built, intelligently designed, reasonably priced, decent-size house with at least a little curb appeal. No matter where her search ends, she'll at long last be home.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670037613
• ISBN13: 9780670037612
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 291 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.8" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

She Found Lots of Perfect $100k Homes!

She found lots of perfect $100k homes -- too bad they weren't perfect for her! I enjoyed this book immensely -- read it in two days. With a warm and friendly writing style, Ms. Jacobs (former editor at Dwell magazine) introduces us to host of talented architects, each with their own take on the $100,000 home, based on local needs, economics & politics and aesthetics. Some are mid-century moderns, some are updated classics, and others defy classification. All are interesting! Along the way she gives us some insight into what's going on across the spectrum in the world of architecture, from the huge corporate builders to the "one-off" customs. As others have noted, there aren't enough pictures (just one black & white drawing for each chapter), but the two page index of the architects' Web site URLs make up for that in spades. I spent two hours surfing them and had a ball! Finally, I'm glad it was her doing the extended road trip and not me -- I surely would not have lasted as long as she did!

Where R U Karrie?

I maybe a fool for architectural discourse but The Perfect $100,000 House is as redolent of architectural joy as the Witold Rybczynski book of the eponymous title The Perfect House: Travels with the Master: Anrdea Palladio. Karrie Jacobs just put a price on it. It is a nutter's brilliant memoir from Vermont to little satori at the edge of architecture. All the while with the sneaking around the notion that for X bucks she can get her own piece of paradise pie. In the process she talks with all manner of types from the trade. It is (eek) life affirming to see we are all in the same boat, and loads of fun, and interesting. I wonder if she is married?

Very Interesting Book!

Karrie Jacob's book, The Perfect $100,000 House, tackles a problem I've been wondering about for a long time--why is the majority of housing in America today extraordinarily expensive crap? Do people in this country just have no taste, or is it that they have no choice? Is good design only for those who can afford a custom single family residence of 500K and up? Ms. Jacobs chronicles her search for answers to these questions with verve and wit, making for entertaining and informative reading. This is one of the most interesting books I've purchased in a long time, and I read quite a lot (usually several books a week).

Why the pre-fab movement has gained so many followers

A diary of one woman's search for what seems so reasonable on paper--a modern home on a budget--the strength of this book is its many entertaining interviews with people who are both part of the mainstream homebuilding industry and those that are trying to offer an alternative. If you've heard about pre-fab, this is a good way to learn why it's exciting--but why it only addresses part of the problem. This book is not a "how-to" guide, though it does underscore how much effort it takes if you want something that doesn't have a gabled garage but don't have a giant budget. Ultimately this book reminded me that the perfect house is really about the perfect neighborhood, which is really hard to build from scratch.