Fine Homebuilding’s “Great Moments in Building History” was a longtime back-page favorite, where readers shared funny, personal, and thoughtful accounts of experiences that made their building or remodeling projects memorable. You can find almost every installment from the magazine column’s 25-year history right here.

The Patient in the Basement

It was like performing an emergency tracheotomy at base camp on Everest. A surgeon’s crackling voice on the satellite phone was guiding me through the tricky procedure. Everything was going…
The Wheelbarrow

Great moments in building history: A wheelbarrow is too useful to become a flower planter
The Missing Cat

Great moments in building history: Feline companion trapped in a bathroom remodel
The Builder’s Hand

Great moments in building history: A hundred-year-old handprint immortalized in a plaster wall
Trimming the Tree

When all else fails, an unlikely tool gets the job done
Great Moments: An Evening with the Ambassador

BY EVERETTE M. HILL Forty-three years ago, I left college with a diploma in my hand and a plan in my mind. I would marry my college sweetheart, who was…
A Perfectly Good Roof

Great moments in building history: Roofing in the summertime
Survey of Job-Site Dogs

Great moments in building history: The contractor’s dog
Even Lengths Only

Great moments in building history: An arithmetics proves to be trouble in the lumber yard
Murphy’s Fun House

Great moments in building history: Please pardon Mr. Murphy

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