The House Always Wins

An essential companion to headache-free home makeovers—part witty narrative, part practical guide—for everyone decorating a new home or updating an old one

With her weekly syndicated column, “At Home with Marni Jameson,” Marni Jameson has become one of the funniest, most widely read purveyors of home-improvement advice. She has designed, built, and decorated three homes from the ground up (and isn’t done yet). Jameson brings that experience—and her two decades as a journalist—to The House Always Wins, a compulsively readable, zanily humorous, yet completely practical step-by-step guide to creating your dream home, with advice and secrets distilled from interviews with dozens of home design experts. If you live in a world with budgets, time constraints, unreliable contractors, cheap spouses, kids, and pets, The House Always Wins will be comforting (it can always be worse), inspiring (who knew?!), and absolutely indispensable.

 

The Critics Say

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Booklist

“The only question to ask after finishing newspaper columnist Jameson’s highly personal, achingly realistic, and snickeringly funny introduction to home decorating is, Why is she read by only seven million readers in 30 markets?” Read More

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Publishers Weekly

“Readers gain the benefit of Jameson’s experience—along with laugh-out-loud anecdotes—in this informative home-improvement guide.” Read More

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Los Angeles Times

“MARNI Jameson: dizzy, uncertain, overwhelmed ditz? Don’t believe it for a second.” Read More

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Newsday

“PURPOSE: To offer readers advice – with humor along the way – about remodeling and redesigning a home to make it truly yours.” Read More

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The Hartford Courant

“While reading Marni Jameson’s new book, “The House Always Wins” [Da Capo Press, $25, 334 pages], during my kids’ piano lessons, I laughed so hard that their teacher had to stop the music.” Read More

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Calgary Herald

“Anyone who has gone through building a new home will tell you, a trip to the homebuilders’ design centre is not as much fun as it sounds.” Read More

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Orlando Sentinel

“The best advice usually comes from people who have “been there, done that” and who are honest enough to tell you what you don’t want — or expect — to hear.” Read More

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Parents Magazine

“When Marni Jameson isn’t writing for Parents, she’s dishing out very practical and funny home-decorating advice in her syndicated column “At Home with Marni Jameson.” Read More

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Chameleon Interiors Blogspot

“I was recently sent a preview copy of syndicated home dec columnist Marni Jameson’s new book “The House Always Wins” which is billed as “a compulsively readable, zanily humorous, yet completely practical step-by-step guide to creating your dream home.” Read More.

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Book Page

“Jameson, whose uproarious voice recalls Erma Bombeck’s, dishes out home advice in witty essays…You don’t necessarily have to be in the middle of a remodel or redecorating project to appreciate the laughs…but anyone on the rocky road to making a house a home will find Jameson an especially charming companion.”

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Betty Lou Phillips, ASID, best-selling author of The French Connection, Villa Décor and other home design books

Stack the deck in your favor with the best how-to decorating book of the century!

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Sarah Susanka, FAIA, architect and author of the Not So Big House series, and The Not So Big Life

“If you want a good laugh and a cleverly disguised portion of home building reality, this is the book for you. It is chock full of expert advice, interjected between the real world stories of Marni Jameson’s venture into finishing a house she and her husband purchased in its “skeleton” phase–just the studs. I know of no other book that’s such an entertaining read while teaching you both what to do and what not to do to make your dream house a reality. I highly recommend The House Always Wins for anyone contemplating either a move or a remodel. As Marni so wisely advises, take your time, and, as I would add, put this book at the top of your to do list.”