Home Magazine's How Your House Works

Vandervort, a columnist for Home magazine, takes readers on a clear and useful tour of what can be at once the most familiar and most alien of places--the home. Each chapter addresses a general ``system'' in the house and is subdivided into sections on specific parts of the system. The ``Pipe Schemes'' chapter, for example, includes sections on the inner workings of specific fixtures like hot-water heaters, toilets and sump pumps, as well as the path that natural gas takes through your home, from the gas meter to the stove. Despite its occasional gee-whiz tone, (``Now electricity zings through wires to power the many conveniences that make our lives comfortable''), the text is lucid. Illustrative line drawings are plentiful. While this general-use guide won't help if you need to know where the reverse-osmosis module in your water filter is, it is a fine basic reference book, of particular value to those considering major construction work. And, if you want to know what that thingamajig that holds the gutter to the fascia is called, Vandervort will keep you from sounding like an idiot at the hardware store. (It's either a clip hanger or a spike and ferrule hanger.) (Oct.)