From the Top Plates Up allows the reader an opportunity to hear the same tips, advice and practical wisdom that Will Holladay (author: A Roof Cutter's Secrets) shared with his framing crews over the years. His compelling stories span a gamut of subjects that touch a carpenter's life. Inspirational and thought provoking for everyone. 275 figures

I have been a framer for 16 years and this book has been useful on most of the houses I build. Not only does it have all the standard rafter tables but the irregular combinations as well. It is very easy to understand and gives all the needed formulas. A MUST have for any framer.

A compact mini-book, perfect for job-site carry, containing all the formulas/principles used by a roof framer on a daily basis. Includes 77 figures and 8 charts pulled from Will Holladay's classic roof framing manual "A Roof Cutter's Secrets" (240 figures, 60 photos). For experienced carpenters only. Illustration, caption, method, and example.

Everything you need to know to estimate, build, and repair practically every type of roof covering: asphalt shingles, roll roofing, wood shingles & shakes, clay tile, slate, metal, built-up, and elastomeric. Shows how to measure and estimate most roofs (including estimating shortcuts discovered by the author), how to install leak-proof underlayment and flashing, and how to solve problems with insulation, vapor barriers, and waterproofing. Over 300 large, clear illustrations that help you find the answers to all your roofing questions.

Keep construction on track with helpful checklists Turn your dream of a custom home into reality! Thinking about building your own home? This easy-to-follow guide shows you how to plan and build a beautiful home on any budget. From acquiring land to finding the best architect to overseeing the construction, you get lots of savvy tips on managing your new investment wisely -- and staying sane during the process! Discover how to: * Find the best homesite * Navigate the plan approval process * Obtain financing * Hire the right contractor * Cut design and construction costs * Avoid common mistakes

This manual includes framing square terminology, brace layout, and complete procedures for common rafter (with and without a tail), hip and valley rafter, and jack rafter layout. Roof types, board foot measure, stair layout, and other framing square applications are presented. Exercises are provided throughout the manual plus an appendix containing popular rafter tables.

In this splendid book, one of America's masters of nonfiction takes us home--into Hometown, U.S.A., the town of Northampton, Massachusetts, and into the extraordinary, and the ordinary, lives that people live there. As Tracy Kidder reveals how, beneath its amiable surface, a small town is a place of startling complexity, he also explores what it takes to make a modern small city a success story. Weaving together compelling stories of individual lives, delving into a rich and varied past, moving among all the levels of Northampton's social hierarchy, Kidder reveals the sheer abundance of life contained within a town's narrow boundaries. Does the kind of small town that many Americans came from, and long for, still exist? Kidder says yes, although not quite in the form we may imagine. A book about civilization in microcosm, Home Town makes us marvel afresh at the wonder of individuality, creativity, and civic order--how a disparate group of individuals can find common cause and a code of values that transforms a place into a home. And this book makes you feel you live there.

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance and bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Moving from Addis Ababa to New York City and back again, Cutting for Stone is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, medicine and ordinary miracles—and two brothers whose fates are forever intertwined.