I freely admit that I am one of those house-geeks whose idea of a good time is staying at home on a cold winter night and looking at floor plans of Victorian houses.....and I loved this book! All of my other Victorian house plan books are printed in black and white, so the color illustrations in this book were much appreciated.

The only disappointment were the colors; putrid green, baby poop yellow, bloodstain, dirt. I can only assume that the paint technology of the day did not allow for any pretty colors, so the Victorians were kind of stuck with what they had to work with. Also, I would have liked to have seen a floor plan for every house illustrated. Many of the houses clearly had third floor living space, and there were no floor plans showing third floor layout.

It is just fun to look at the houses and the floor plans and imagine oneself living in one of them, hanging curtains, arranging furniture, curling up in a bay window seat with a good book, waking up in a fine summer morning and stepping out onto the balcony to greet the day, watching a thunderstorm from the third floor tower. My own home is historic and gracious, but not as grand as these. I hope to someday buy one of the local Victorians and restore it. ( )