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You can't please everybody
comments (0) April 3rd, 2008 in Blogs
Kevin Ireton, editor-at-large
no recommendations
“Dear Sirs,
Despite being longtime subscribers, we are canceling our subscription to Fine Homebuilding. We are very disappointed
in the direction your magazine is headed. As architects, we are constantly
battling against the type of construction and materials you seem to be intent
on promoting—vinyl siding, vinyl windows, fake decking, fake stone, etc.
Perhaps a name change to ‘Common House Assembly’?
Sincerely…”
I hate
vinyl siding. I hate it almost as much as I hate letters like the one above,
which I received last week from a reader in Virginia. During my first 10 years as editor
of Fine Homebuilding, I
refused to publish an article about how to install vinyl siding. And when I
finally did publish one, I commissioned Alex Wilson to write a companion piece called “Does Vinyl Belong on a Fine Home?” in which he explored the
environmental issues surrounding the use of polyvinyl
chloride. Alex’s conclusion—and this was six years ago, mind you—was that
people should avoid vinyl building products wherever possible.
So why publish the article about vinyl siding in the first place? Well, despite
what I think or what Alex thinks, some readers of Fine
Homebuilding like vinyl siding, and other readers, even
if they don’t like it, are asked to install the stuff on their customers’
homes. I figured they should have access to good information about how to install vinyl siding correctly. I published the article as a service to the readers who pay a dear
price for this magazine.
The question is: Were we promoting vinyl siding by publishing an article about
how to install it? Maybe. But we were also promoting its antithesis because the
same issue featured an article about timber-framing. Similarly, when we ran a story on vinyl windows, we also featured custom concrete counters. When we covered synthetic decking, we covered built-up interior-trim details with wood moldings. And when
we recently published an article about working with manufactured stone, the same
issue contained an article about restoring old windows.
I don’t believe that Fine Homebuilding’s
coverage of vinyl, composite, and imitation products represents a new direction
for the magazine, as our disappointed reader suggests. I think it reflects the
direction of the home-building industry in general, and we, as journalists, are
charged with covering that industry. I also think that a comprehensive look at
the projects and techniques featured in Fine
Homebuilding over the years, especially relative to other
building magazines, would actually reveal a bias toward natural, durable,
authentic materials.
posted in: Blogs
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About this blog
As the editor of Fine Homebuilding, I spend my weekdays trying to produce a magazine that will satisfy 300,000 of the most demanding builders, both professional and amateur. As the owner of a 200-year old Cape in Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills, I spend weekends working on my house.
Each activity invariably informs, and complicates, the other. In this blog, I’ll offer observations from both worlds -- publishing and building -- with the hope of providing some useful or at least entertaining insights.
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