Due out this February 28^th, 2012 How Your House Works: A Visual Guide to Maintaining Your Home has all the makings of a great repair book. Written by Charlie Wing and originally published in 2007, the book offers an overall view of home construction and maintenance to help the reader really understand what it takes to make a home work. The new edition, published by RSMeans, has been freshly updated and expanded, and it will be available in a handy and practical paperback format. How Your House Works covers all the basics of how a home really functions, from electric systems and plumbing, to foundations and frames. Appliances, windows, doors, heating and air conditioning systems, clock thermostats, moisture and mold control, lighting, and using solar energy are also explored in a comprehensive, easy-to-follow manner.

The book is thoroughly illustrated with full-color drawings that make grasping the concepts described in the book a snap, even for the beginner. Charlie Wing emphasizes throughout this work the importance of being informed—after all, if you can see the big picture, it's a lot harder to get ripped off on all those little details of home repair and maintenance we might not otherwise understand. If you're facing a repair job, this book can help you save money and do the work right the first time. If you're simply curious about the origins of all those strange “bumps in the night,” this book might just have the clues you need to solve the mystery. Put simply, How Your House Works is an interesting and worthy read for any repair book enthusiast.