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Regardless of how secure your home is now, it can always be made safer. The Ultimate Guide to Home Security is a new book that can show you how. It covers all types of modern locks, alarms, intercoms, cameras and security systems designed to protect you, your family and your valuables. Not into technology? That’s all right. There are chapters on security fences and using landscape bushes to thwart intruders.

You’ll learn about the best exterior lighting, how to choose a home safe and how to make an inventory of valuables for your insurance company. The book even includes articles on how to make your garage and shed more secure.

You’ll also find a useful printable checklist of what to do before you leave on a vacation to keep you home secure while you are away.

The Ultimate Guide to Home Security is unusual because it’s available as an inexpensive, downloadable ebook, but it’s also available for free. If you don’t mind reading off your computer screen, you can page through all of the chapters online.

Click here to get The Ultimate Guide to Home Security >>>

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A contractor friend once told me that pole barn building was the easiest construction method he’d ever tried, the second time he did it. If you’re planning to build a pole barn, you might want to take a look at the book Pole Barns Made Easy for help getting it right the first time.

Book Illustration - Pole Building Made Easy

The 100 page book is a practical step-by-step guide to planning and building a pole barn. All the important construction steps are included. You’ll find easy to use information about selecting the best building site, barn style and materials. Photos and diagrams make the ideas clear even to novice builders. There are tips and techniques that you’d never learn on your own, and recommendations on the best tools to have on hand.

Author Ed Gore is a pole barn builder with more than twenty-five years experience in the Dallas, Ft. Worth area. His idea was that using the book would be “like having an experienced builder at your side.” If you’re a first-time builder that’s just what you need.

The instant-download e-book has many interactive features and links to a variety of helpful resources. It includes complete construction plans for an 18′x24′ gable-roof style pole barn. Details for that plan include roof truss design and rafter cut template. Inexpensive plans for dozens of other pole barns are available on Gore’s website, DFWBuilders.com.

Because Gore builds primarily in Texas, the details in his book and plans work best for regions with a climate that’s similar. For most of the south, south-west and California, the construction standards are just right. However, if you’re in the north, northeast, in high mountain areas or in high-wind coastal areas, you’ll need to make some modifications. As noted in the book, you may have to space your roof trusses closer together. You may also have to provide a concrete collar/base at the bottom of your “poles” ( actually pressure-treated wooden posts ) to provide uplift protection and to spread heavy snow loads safely into the ground.

Read more about Pole Barns Made Easy >>>

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Kits are a great way of building in the country. All of the lumber is shipped to your site, pre-cut and marked for easy assembly. Because there’s little wasted wood and because the buildings are designed to go together easily, you can usually have a top quality building at a reasonable price. Look at the Country Building Directory, on our sidebar, for cabin, shed and barn kit builders.

Carriage House Style Barn Kit by Country Carpenters

The building at left and below is the 22′ deep Carriage House by Country Carpenters. It’s a post-and-beam kit that’s as good looking inside as it is outside. The Salt-Box style roof is available in either the 10/12 pitch shown or a shallower 8/12 pitch. It’s also available with from one to five parking bays. The interior is clear-span. There are no interior posts to get in the way of you and your vehicles. The big cupola is one of many options offered.

The Carriage House is just one of dozens of beautiful post-and-beam designs available from Country Carpenters. They’ll build their barns, sheds, stables and carriage houses in central New England. Anywhere else in the continental U.S., they’ll ship a pre-cut kit, with step-by-step instructions on how you or your builder can put them together. You can download their complete catalog from their web site.

Country Carpenters' Carriage House Interior

Better yet, if you’re ever near Hartford, Connecticut, stop by their workshop in the village of Hebron. They have a variety of models on display in a pretty country setting, so you’ll get a good idea of how one might look on your property.

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Customized Whitehorse II Cottage

The Whitehorse II design, from Cherokee Cabin Company is a remarkable little home. With a living room, eat-in kitchen, bath, sleeping loft and front porch, it has just about everything you could want in a getaway home in the country. The remarkable thing is that it squeezes everything on to a footprint that’s just 16′ wide and 18′ deep. Multiple large windows make the interior bright and help make it seem much more spacious than it actually is.

With first floor living space of just 252 square feet and a little 142 square foot loft this is a very economical home to build. As shown in the photo it makes a great country vacation cottage. But, you don’t need to dress this building up with window boxes and nice finishes to make it look great. With rough board-and-batten or log siding the Whitehorse II makes an attractive and practical camping cabin. The small size means less building building materials to cart to backwoods building sites.

The building plans are inexpensive but complete. They consist of 1/4″ Foundation/Footing Plan, 1/4″ Floor Plan, 1/4″ Front Elevation, 1/4″ Right Side Elevation, 1/4″ Rear Elevation, 1/4″ Left Side Elevation, Scaled Building or Wall Section with Electric noted on Floor Plan.

A similar home, just called “Whitehorse” is available. It has the same first floor plan but no loft.

For more information, to order plans or to see other designs, visit Cherokee Cabin Company’s web site.

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