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Comment by teucris | Hacker News Reader

I have four books that I got from my dad - one for construction and repairs, one for electrical, one for plumbing, and one for landscaping. They’re in simple English with excellent illustrations. Using those books, I’ve been able to fix/improve pretty much everything in my house for ten years.

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Could you list the titles/author of these books? I'd actually really like to get more into DIY home improvement, and having a starting reference like this would be really valuable

I know of a couple: - How to fix damned near everything [1] - Reader's Digest Fix it yourself [2] - Audel's Carpenters and Builders guide [3]

That Audel's, my wife got me for Christmas a few years back at Lee Valley Tools, I think. Was about 1/3 of what the listed price is here.

[1] https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?ds=20&kn=how%...

[2] https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?ds=20&kn=read...

[3] https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/audels-carpenters...

The electrical and plumbing books are from a series from Home Depot called "1-2-3": "Plumbing 1-2-3" and "Wiring 1-2-3". I love them but some other posters have shared books that look even better; I plan to check them out. The construction book is "Modern Carpentry" by Willis H. Wagner. I can't find the landscaping book - haven't needed that one as much - but in my stack I noticed Reader's Digest's "Home Improvements Manual" which I've also used quite a bit.

Thanks!

It's still a human doing it and not an AI or robot. All of these jobs are not uniform enough for a robot or AI to be able to handle everyone's uniquely built house.

you also got standardized parts and plug-in systems that use them; standardized tools that were available for a reasonable cost; and you have basic health and mobility

You’re absolutely correct. The point was that I don’t need AI.

Would love to know what these books are.

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