The color photos of Victorian porches and more modern patios are delightful. There are good ideas for furnishing a porch. There is also a wonderful one page description of the "sleeping porch" that was so in vogue with a quotation from Harriet Beecher Stowe about "stagnet air" in small bedrooms "slow-creeping black blood which clogs the brain." There is also a description of a kind of Murphy bed that could be housed in the wall and pulled down at night for the porch.

It is interesting that many of the workmen in this book are in fact workwomen.

Many practical facts about pouring footings and building stairs.

Grunwald’s book explains some of the many ways to build porches, patios, and steps in such an easy way that a middle school kid could read it and be able to understand it pretty well. It also shows how to make a porch bug proof and how to repair weatherworn posts and floors. The steps are written clearly for no confusion with assembly. For an inexperienced porch or patio builder, this book will give an insight to building porches and patios the proper, smart, and safe way. Not only will it do that, it will teach how to make porches and patios blend in with the enviornment and the house it's with. I would recommend this book definatly to anyone with the want to learn how to build porches, patios, and stairs. For an older book, it is well written for understanding. Many techniques are still used today that are in the book.