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They’re quiet, silent and quick. In fact, normally you’ll never know what hit you, until after it’s happened. You feel violated and confused. What am I talking about? Home burglaries.
According to the latest stats from the F.BI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) a home burglary occurs each 15.7 seconds.
Even if you feel safe and secure now don’t fall into a sense of untrue security. That’s a burglars bestloved weapon versus you; thinking it could never occur to you.
Don’t depend on the police, the intermediate response time is 5 to 10 minutes (more if you live in a black community, right? Can I get an Aaaa-men). And most burglars are in and out of your house in under 4 minutes according to the latest Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics.
In the past a strong lock and nosy neighbors was all it took to keep out most burglars. But these days with busy neighbors who seldom know each other. What do you do? It’s absurd to depend on your neighbors observing out for your home and possessions as your main line of defense.
Most burglars will tell you they’ve never seen a lock they can’t pick, pry, pull or sledge-hammer off and most law enforcement officials would agree.
So how do you fight what most law enforcement officials term the “New School” burglar. The ones who know how to get around your alarms, double bolt locks and occasional nosy neighbor, or even your vicious yard dog? You fight the new school burglar with new school home protections of your own.
I’ll give you tips on how to protect your home from the new school of home burglars. Yes burglars are updating their techniques. Are you updating your home shelter knowledge? A good strong lock employed to be all it took. Now it takes a strong consciousness of new (low and no-cost) home shelter methods.
Sure a imagination alarm with all the bells and whistles is great. But what do you do if you can’t muster the cash to go that route? Here are 5 Tested Ways to Protect Your Home and Possessions.
1. Learn to think like a burglar.
This may sound like a strange suggestion but it works. Look at your house the way a burglar would look at it. If you wanted to get into your house without attracting attention do you see any weak or vulnerable spots (That’s how burglars think)? How in regards to that glass panel kitchen door? The shrubbery hiding doorways and windows, that would give a burglar a good hiding place and time to do his work. Or how when it comes to that sliding glass door? Any burglar worth his salt could lift it off the track in with regards to 2 minutes if not secured by the proper locks and secondary stops.
2. Keep Up-To-Date On The Latest Home Protection Products.
Burglars are perpetually updating their home burglary proficiencies and skills, after all it’s there occupation too. So you must make it your occupation to update your home protection.
That always starts with awareness. Awareness of what’s available in tools, instrumentation and information. All these proceed to get for less and more comfortable to gain access to for the intermediate homeowner.
3. Get A Yearly Home Protection Inspection
Most local police departments will come out and give you a home inspection and suggest any updates you may need. Most security companies also offer free home security inspections (although they may want to trade you an alarm). Or you may hire your own security company to give you there unbiased opinion.
4. Stop Flashing (valuables).
Those imagination diamonds, slick watches or other bling-bling you like to show off could attract the wrong attention if you’re not careful. The #1 motivation for a burglar choosing your home rather than another? Your home seemed the most vulnerable to them and they sensed or knew you have valuables they may trade quick.
5. Make It Hard Work For The Burglar As Much As Possible.
Easy access and easy escape routes form the burglars priority when choosing which home they’ll break into. It’s your occupation as a home proprietor to make it as hard as possible for him to accomplish those two goals without making your home look like Fort Knox. Properly placed shrubs, gates and lighting may do wonders to admonish a burglar from choosing your home. Most burglars hate to work too hard. They’ll just choose an more comfortable target. Your house will have to say “Don’t Even Try It” to burglars.
5. Get Something That Makes Noise (alarm, dog, even shrubs or plants around windows).
One botheration a burglar hates if they may aid it is noise. It lands them in jail more than anything. They love not one thing more than quiet, private spots around your home to do their dirty work. So try to get something that makes noise or at least forces a burglar to make noise to get in. A law enforcement official was cited as saying “it’s surprising how a good deal of burglars enter homes through unsecured or flimsy windows, doors or gates that invite them in quietly”.
Now take these suggestions and use them to up-date or maintain your homes security. It’s the best way to keep what you’ve worked so long and hard to achieve, your possessions and your peace of mind.
A Field Guide To American Houses
For the house lover and the curious tourist, for the house buyer and the weekend stroller, for neighborhood preservation groups and for all who want to recognise more regarding their community — here, at last, is a book that makes it both easy and gratifying to tell apart the respective styles and periods of American domestic architecture.
Concentrating not on rare landmarks but on typical dwellings in frequent neighborhoods all throughout the United States — houses built over the past three hundred years and lived in by Americans of each social and economic background — the book provides you with the facts (and frame of reference) that will enable you to look in a fresh way at the houses you constantly see around you. It tells you — and shows you in more than 1,200 illustrations — what you need to know in order to be capable to recognize the various distinct architectural styles and to understand their historical significance. What does that cornice mean? Or that porch? That door? When was this house built? What does it is style say in regards to the persons who built it? You’ll find the answers to such questions here.
This is how the book works: Each of thirty-nine chapters focuses on a peculiar style (and it is variants). Each begins with a big schematic drawing that highlights the style’s most primary identifying features. Additional drawings and photographs depict the most mutual shapes and the important subtypes, permitting you to see at a glimpse a wide range of examples of each style. Still more drawings offer close-up views of typical little details — windows, doors, cornices, etc. — that might be difficult to see in full-house pictures. The accompanying text is rich in info when it comes to each style — describing in detail it is identifying features, telling you where (and in what quantity) you’re likely to find examples of it, talking about all of it is noteworthy variants, and revealing it is origin and tracing it is history.
In the book’s firstborn chapters you’ll find valuable general discussions of house-building materials and proficiencies (“Structure”), house shapes (“Form”), and the a lot of traditions of architectural fashion (“Style”) that have influenced American house design through the past three centuries. A pictorial key and glossary aid lead you from simple, effortlessly recognized architectural features — the presence of a tile roof, for example — to the styles in which that feature is likely to be found.
ReviewHow to Use This Book
Preface
Looking at American Houses
Style: The Fashions of American Houses
Form: The Shapes of American Houses
Structure: The Anatomy of American Houses
Pictorial Key and Glossary
Folk Houses
Native American
Pre-Railroad
National
Colonial Houses (1600-1820)
Postmedieval English
Dutch Colonial
French Colonial
Spanish Colonial
Georgian
Adam
Early Classical Revival
Romantic Houses (1820-1880)
Greek Revival
Gothic Revival
Italianate
Exotic Revivals
Octagon
Victorian Houses (1860-1900)
Second Empire
Stick
Queen Anne
Shingle
Richardsonian Romanesque
Folk Victorian
Eclectic Houses (1880-1940)
Anglo-American, English, and French Period Houses
Colonial Revival
Neoclassical
Tudor
Chateauesque
Beaux Arts
French Eclectic
Mediterranean Period Houses
Italian Renaissance
Mission
Spanish Eclectic
Monterey
Pueblo Revival
Modern Houses
Prairie
Craftsman
Modernistic
International
American Houses Since 1940
Modern
Neoeclectic
Contemporary Folk
For Further Reference
Index
From the Inside FlapFor the house lover and the curious tourist, for the house buyer and the weekend stroller, for neighborhood preservation groups and for all who want to recognise more regarding their community — here, at last, is a book that makes it both easy and pleasurable to discern the respective styles and periods of American domestic architecture.
Concentrating not on rare landmarks but on typical dwellings in usual neighborhoods all throughout the United States — houses built over the past three hundred years and lived in by Americans of each social and economic background — the book provides you with the facts (and frame of reference) that will enable you to look in a fresh way at the houses you constantly see around you. It tells you — and shows you in more than 1,200 illustrations — what you need to know in order to be capable to recognize the various distinct architectural styles and to comprehend their historical significance. What does that cornice mean? Or that porch? That door? When was this house built? What does it is style say regarding the humans who built it? You’ll find the answers to such questions here.
This is how the book works: Each of thirty-nine chapters focuses on a peculiar style (and it is variants). Each begins with a big schematic drawing that highlights the style’s most indispensable identifying features. Additional drawings and photographs depict the most mutual shapes and the crucial subtypes, permitting you to see at a glimpse a wide range of examples of each style. Still more drawings offer close-up views of typical little details — windows, doors, cornices, etc. — that might be difficult to see in full-house pictures. The accompanying text is rich in selective information regarding each style — describing in detail it is identifying features, telling you where (and in what quantity) you’re likely to find examples of it, talking about all of it is remarkable variants, and revealing it is origin and tracing it is history.
In the book’s primary chapters you’ll find valuable frequent discussions of house-building materials and proficiencies (“Structure”), house shapes (“Form”), and the a lot of traditions of architectural fashion (“Style”) that have influenced American house design through the past three centuries. A pictorial key and glossary support lead you from simple, effortlessly recognized architectural features — the presence of a tile roof, for example — to the styles in which that feature is likely to be found.
From the Back CoverHow to Use This Book Preface Looking at American Houses Style: The Fashions of American Houses Form: The Shapes of American Houses Structure: The Anatomy of American Houses Pictorial Key and Glossary Folk Houses Native American Pre-Railroad National Colonial Houses (1600-1820) Postmedieval English Dutch Colonial French Colonial Spanish Colonial Georgian Adam Early Classical Revival Romantic Houses (1820-1880) Greek Revival Gothic Revival Italianate Exotic Revivals Octagon Victorian Houses (1860-1900) Second Empire Stick Queen Anne Shingle Richardsonian Romanesque Folk Victorian Eclectic Houses (1880-1940) Anglo-American, English, and French Period Houses Colonial Revival Neoclassical Tudor Chateauesque Beaux Arts French Eclectic Mediterranean Period Houses Italian Renaissance Mission Spanish Eclectic Monterey Pueblo Revival Modern Houses Prairie Craftsman Modernistic International American Houses Since 1940 Modern Neoeclectic Contemporary Folk For Further Reference Index
Most helpful customer reviews
74 of 75 people found the following review helpful.
 An Essential Reference
By Mark K. Mcdonough
I worked for a few years as an architectural historian doing historic building surveys and wore out at least 2 or 3 copies of this wonderful book. There are lots of “pocket guides” to architectural styles which will tell you that yup, that thing with a turret is a Victorian. But this book is a priceless resource for anyone with more than a casual interest in American domestic architecture. The McAlesters focus on ordinary houses (rather than rare architectural landmarks) and cover everything from dog-run log cabins to Greek Revival cottages to 1950s ranch houes. The writing is clear, the level of detail is just right, and the book has hundreds of black and white photos and illustrations.
I learned about domestic architecture to make a living, but even 20 years later still enjoy it as a hobby. If you’re a professional in the field, this book is essential. But I would strongly recommend it to amateur enthusiasts as well. Once you learn to recognize housing types, every drive becomes a history lesson.
53 of 53 people found the following review helpful.
A complete & entertaining education for old-house fans!
By bensmomma
If you are an old-house fan, this book is the equivalent of a college education. Here are some reasons this book is both entertaining and useful:
It starts with chapters on basic structure: shapes of houses, style of construction, ornamentation, etc. There are simple, remarkably clear drawings accompanying all this that will serve to give you a kind of ‘vocabulary’ to interpret houses when you run across something new (for example, a dozen different types of dormers – what are they all called?). (These involve almost entirely external elements, for detailed interiors you will need another book.)
Lots of delicious historical background about how history and technological advances changed housing. For example, the authors divide folk housing into “pre” and “post-railroad” because not until railroads made building materials nationally accessible did a national set of housing styles develop.
Following this, there are a series of chapters describing different styles (i.e., Victorian, Tudor, etc.), starting with the characteristic details, when and where the style is found, etc. The McAlisters do a particularly good job on regional variations; there are some remarkable maps showing the prevelance of different styles in different states.
The graphics are fantastic and plentiful. The simple stylzed drawings of building elements (rooflines, doorways, windows, etc.) clearly distinguish one detail from another, while the photographs make you want to pop into the car and drive all over to see the real houses themselves.
One note: there is a table, starting around p. 55, that will make the book much easier to use as a ‘field guide’ (i.e., driving around looking at houses the way birders look at birds). This chart helps you use key identifying features to determine the most likely style of the house. For example, my house has a steeply pitched roof and multliple gables, so it’s probably a Tudor. From there you can go to the proper chapter. Without this chart you’ll have to search the whole book.
32 of 32 people found the following review helpful.
The bible of American house styles
By A
Of the several dozen books I own of American house styles, this is the only book that systematically breaks down every American house style from the Native American tipi to Modern architecture. For every style, it gives the two critcal elements of architecture, the form/shape of the houses and their details. As a land developer, I use this book as a pattern book for the design criteria of homes built in my neighborhoods – every homeowner gets a copy! This is truly the bible of American house styles.
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