There I was in the grocery store, minding my own business. What? There's a pile of 75% off books in the freezer section? OK I'm in!
This Book: "Hi, I'm Mike. Check out my pipes! I like to fix houses. Did you notice my pipes?"
Me: "Yes I couldn't help but notice, want to come home with me?"
This Book: "Yes, I can help you with all sorts of home improvement projects!"
Me: "Never mind about that, just get in the cart!"
Funny side note: When I was looking for an image of this book cover Google wanted me to search "Mike Holmes Married?" rather than "Mike Holmes Make It Right". Seems I may not be alone.
In all seriousness, one of my interests is home renovation and design. I've bought and sold a couple now, and had a lot of fun. I was the nerdy kid who instead of just drawing the little box house had my characters living in fabulous mansions with amenities I knew how to draw and spell but would have never been able to pronounce and had never seen in real life. My favorite Lego house had a clock tower after all.
The whole Mike Holmes thing started as a joke. I had a contractor working at my house that thought Mr Holmes was an arrogant know it all. Maybe so, but I had a lot of fun posting blown up "Make It Right" posters all over the house where I knew he'd be working. At one point I even printed off an application for the show and left it half filled out in a conspicuous location. When I saw the book, I of course had to have it so I could pretend to check the contractor's work against what Mike says.
The actual book itself is a good basic intro into home building and renos. There honestly wasn't much in here that I didn't already know from first hand experience, but I can see it being a valuable resource for people who maybe want to hire someone to do some work or are thinking about having a new home built. I think it would be pretty inadequate for someone wanting to know how to actually do things. It's niche lies in educating homeowners about construction and renovation techniques, allowing them to be more familiar and conversant in building methods and terminology so that when they hire someone to do the work they have a better idea of what is going on, what a reasonable time frame might be, and a basic idea of how it should be done. It's not a pretty picture book with lots of renovation ideas, either...it's more of a "here's how things work" book. All in all, it stays on my shelf and if you can find it at a discount and are interested in renos you might find it useful. If you want to see more of Mike, you're best to stick with the TV show.
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