House

House is a nonfiction book by Tracy Kidder, originally published in 1985, later reissued in 1999. Kidder follows the construction of a new home near Amherst, Massachusetts, detailing the personalities and work involved.

The narrative begins as builder Jim Locke uses his transit to survey the plot of land chosen for the house. Also present are the architect Bill Rawn, Jim’s partners, and the couple building the home, Jonathan and Judith Souweine. The bulldozer arrives late and breaks ground, leveling the site.

Kidder details how the Souweine’s outgrew the duplex they shared with another family and decided to purchase a plot of land from Judith’s parents, liking the idea of three generations of the family living in close proximity. Jonathan is very involved in local politics and his aggressive, confident personality have made his letters to the local newspaper the stuff of legend—he is opinionated. A successful lawyer, he once ran for District Attorney and won the primary but lost the general election. Judith is highly educated and has a softer approach but is still very confident.



The Souweine’s hire architect Bill Rawn, a man who has changed careers several times. Bill is awkward and rambles when he speaks. He attended Yale and graduated law school, and was an artist of some renown. He met the Souweine’s years earlier, and the Souweine’s hire him despite the fact that this is his first house design.

The Souweine’s hire a company called Apple Corps to build the house. The company is composed of Jim Locke, Alex Ghiselin, Ned Krutsky, and Richard Gougeon. Apple Corps has a reputation of doing very high-quality work, paying a lot of attention to detail, and being concerned with every aspect of the end result. Apple Corps has suffered along with every other builder due to the high interest rates, and hasn’t built a new house in a long time, staying busy with renovation work. The commission to build the Souweine’s house is thus very welcome. Jim Locke is a passionate carpenter and builder. Richard struggled at school due to dyslexia. Jim is very judgmental when it comes to any sort of physical work, believing there is one correct way to do things. Although the business they built is well-regarded, their business practices are not great. Their commitment to quality often means they make very little when a project exceeds the original bid.

Jonathan and Jim get into an argument; Jonathan believes that because Bill’s design is so good, Jim must invest less time in the planning of the project, and despite the fact that he has accepted the bid he wants a small discount—he wishes the build price to be reduced from $146,660 to $146,000 even. Jim is outraged and angry, but needs the job to move forward and agrees.



Kidder then details what goes into building a house. He discusses the lumber business and how specific cuts of wood are produced for building a house, and how Jim Locke and his partners go about sourcing and judging the wood to be used. Kidder compares the list of materials that Henry David Thoreau used to build his cabin in Walden with the much longer and much more detailed (and costly) list that will be used to construct the Souweine’s home, and ruminates that home building is no longer the relatively simple process it once was.

This is in part due to the variety of home styles that can be selected—the Souweine’s home is in the Greek Revival style, an architectural style closely associated with American democracy, introduced by Thomas Jefferson and promoted throughout the 18th and 19th centuries as a peculiarly ‛American’ style of home and public building. Kidder explores the history of building contracts, especially the seemingly innocuous phrase ‛in a workmanlike manner.’

Apple Corps encounters a difficulty when designing and building the main staircase in the home, and a lot of time and energy is spent devising an elegant solution—but this costs them time and money, reducing their overall profit. Jim Locke continually brings up the $660 that Jonathan bargained for, feeling aggrieved anew every time he finds himself doing something outside the original scope of work, although he often does these things because of his commitment to quality and perfection. This leads to several arguments and confrontations between Jonathan and Jim.



The house is built and Bill Rawn goes on to win an award for the design—his first residential project. Despite the tensions that flared during the build, both Jonathan Souweine and Jim Locke attend the awards ceremony with Bill to share in the celebration. Kidder details how Bill Rawn became an award-winning architect and an established star in the field. Kidder notes that Apple Corps dissolved as the partnership split up, but all four partners are still building houses. He closes the book with a glossary, an extensive bibliography, and the house plans.