From Animal House to Our House: A Love Story

by Ron Tanner

Ten years ago, Ron and his then-girlfriend, Jill, did the impossible. They bought condemned property -- a big Baltimore Victorian brownstone ­ and vowed to bring it back to its original glory.  The house had been home to Baltimore's most notorious fraternity for a decade and now, wrecked and abandoned, it was filled with garbage. As if that weren't daunting Ron and Jill had been dating for only six months and they knew nothing about fixing up old houses. Friends, family, and concerned onlookers told them not to do it ­ they would surely lose their shirts and their love in the bargain. But Jill wanted the house and Ron wanted Jill. So Ron bought the house.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published February 14, 2012

About the author

Ron lives on an historic farm in Maryland, where he directs Good Contrivance Farm Writer's Retreat, an educational non-profit. Learn more at http://historicfarm.org.

Ron Tanner’s writing has been named “notable” in both Best American Essays and Best American Short Stories. His awards for fiction include the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize, the Jack Dyer Prize, the Charles Angoff Prize, the Faulkner Society gold medal, Pushcart Prize, New Letters Award, and many others, as well as fellowships from the Michener/Copernicus Society, Sewanee Writers Conference, and the National Park Service, to name a few. His novel Missile Paradise was named a “notable book of 2017” by the American Library Association. His most recent book, Far West, a story collection, won the Elixir Press book prize in 2020.

Reviews

[Gillian Evans]

A cute story of a couple going through hardships both in their relationship and while they renovate an old Victorian home in Baltimore, MD.

[Caroline]

This Book Club mtg. was especially exciting b/c we got a special tour of the actual owner's house & he was present at our mtg. Ron let us open all the closets in his house. We pretty much saw every room except for his basement & attic. It was a real treat! I brought some left over jambalaya from a Mardi Gras party I had attended. I didn't actually cook it myself. A caterer made it & Ron helped himself to several servings. The book was an easy read. It was so much fun to now have the inside story of this glorious house which I must have passed by a 100 times. Fiona made a really thoughtful comment that the house renovation is like a relationship - it's never ever actually complete but always a work in progress. I'm now inspired to redo my kitchen myself! Thanks so much Ron!

[Ashley]

This book is so much better than I expected it to be when I first picked it up. I received this book as an ARC from their publicist and though it sounded interesting it wasn't a book I expected to really grab my attention but I couldn't have been more wrong. I finished this book in two nights and truly enjoyed every moment of it. I expected it to be full of monotonous details about restoring an old home on the edge of ruin but instead it was a story of overcoming obstacles, achieving dreams and pursuing passions.

From Animal House to Our House is a romantic love story of the best kind. He fell for her, she fell for him and together they overcame a monumental challenge to achieve their dream.

[Stella Fouts]

For anyone who's contemplating buying and rehabbing an old house, especially in Baltimore city, this is a must-read BEFORE you do that. I'm not suggesting that you'll choose NOT to buy an old house, but author Ron Tanner's experiences will, at the very least, give you a clearer picture of what you'll be up against. And if you love old houses, as Ron does, you'll choose to go forward in your quest to possess a grand old lady! This book is especially interesting as Ron's house just happens to be "local." If you can't get down to his neighborhood to see the house, here's the next best thing: http://www.houselove.org/.

[Aaron]

This is an excellent memoir. It's very entertaining. I read it in one sitting--that's how good I thought it was.

[Claire]

Interesting read but I think it needed another go round with an editor. Also the illustrations were rather terrible.

[Patty Getsla]

Very insightful read about the pains and joys of rehabbing an old house back to original condition. So much I did not know, and years of work. The story was also made more interesting by simultaneously rehashing the authors trials and tribulations with love. He seems hell bent on making the same mistakes but in the end, he learns from past errors in love and house rehab.
Definitely enjoyed reading this memoir and learned a lot of interesting facts about historic homes. Sometimes found myself getting a little bored or saying “not again” before taking a little break from reading.

[Molly]

Interesting book, particularly for a reader interested in restoration and/or Historic Preservation. It’s an overall easy read that skillfully combines helpful bits of technical information with a smattering of entertaining stories. Although he doesn’t sugar coat how much work it is, Ron makes the dream of restoring an old home feel accessible. Next time skip the illustrations though, yikes!

[Karen]

As a researcher of Victorian literature, I knew that I would love this book's spotlight on the Victorian house. Yet I am not one to watch home restoration shows or browse the aisles of a hardware store. I've rented apartments for years and only lift a hammer if the landlord fails to answer in a dire emergency. Yet I adored this book, which kept me brilliant company on a long transatlantic flight. I chose to keep reading through all of the free movies, in fact, and couldn't wait to finish it when I got to my destination.

This is a book for anyone who loves old houses, American history, classic romance, and great writing. It is not a collection of blueprints and how-to project advice (as one reviewer on this site laments). Quite simply, the house changes the writer, and that's the heart of this restoration story. Ron Tanner's unwavering optimism, self-deprecating sense of humor, and uncommon faith make him a highly likeable narrator. His partner in dumpster diving, Jill, proves a refreshingly quirky heroine. Throughout their courtship, this pair builds the good life for themselves room by room and floor by floor -- not 'good' in terms of wealth or prestige or even beautiful vintage furniture, but in terms of building a home where friends, family, pets, neighbors, and students are genuinely welcomed.

The writer's profession as a university instructor adds another engaging layer to this story. As Ron Tanner recounts the house abuse that the fraternity members of one of our country's more prestigious universities committed, a grim portrait of the spoiled and entitled, vulgar and violent college student emerges all too clearly. But then we see a wonderful counterpoint: the university professor cleaning up the students' trash on an unprecedented scale. There is no clearer portrait to my mind of a teacher changing his community for the better.

"From Animal House to Our House" might be the 21st-century memoir's answer to the great American novel: hard work really does pay off, and no tragic ending is required.

[Jo Anne]

As someone who recently bought a 90 year old house in need of love, I could totally relate to the problems Ron was going through. Many times I nodded my head in agreement. I have recommended this book to all my old house owning friends.

What was tough for me, was Jill. I found her to be wilful, selfish and inconsiderate. Getting a second dog when Ron asked her not to, which peed (several times) on newly restored floors, made me want to slap her. I would have kicked her to the curb a long time ago. Working with poisonous chemicals without proper equipment? Not cute. Stupid. I know the point of the story was that Jill wanted the house and he wanted Jill, so of course their relationship was going to figure heavily in the story. But her actions turned me off and a couple of times I had to skim through the parts about her. I wonder how SHE felt about how she was portrayed in the book. I would have given the book a higher rating otherwise.

[Margo]

I bought this book after reading about Ron Tanner's DYI book tour in a Poet's and Writer's article. Something tells me he sold as many books from that article as he did from the tour. Tanner writes about his multi-year project painstakingly restoring an ancient and enormous Victorian house in Baltimore that had been literally gutted and trashed by the fraternity that had previously owned it. Along the way he details not only the rebuilding of the house, but his building of a "hopefully" lasting relationship. I'd have liked a little more construction and a little less angst, but I am sure there are others who would have preferred the reverse. all in all, a highly entertaining and well-written account of a man, a woman, and a house.

[Deborah]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book which was withdrawn from the library collection because it was shelved in the section about renovating houses rather than in memoirs. What a shame that those who love to read people's stories never found it there. We bought an old farmhouse in the Midwest that needed plenty of work, but nowhere near the amount of work needed by the author's brownstone in Baltimore. I would have run the other way. Yet he and his girlfriend persisted, invested and believed in the restoration of their Queen Anne. The story of her return to life is told with honesty and humor. I was sorry to turn the final page.

[Karen]

An old house and a new relationship. How rehabbing a huge, derelict Victorian era house in Baltimore, with little experience or money, brought a couple together, and allowed them to grow into a new understanding of life, love and what's really important. There are no photographs in the book, just drawings that the author made which are wonderful. They have a website, but I waited until I was done with the book before viewing it. It made it all the more exciting to see what they had accomplished with the place!

[Sarah]

I fell in love with this book! The characters are great, the story is inspiring, and the house is basically a character in itself. I could hardly put it down! On another note, I suddenly want to buy and refurbish an old house. And I am not a handy lady, so that's saying a lot. Maybe the crazy determination to turn disaster into beauty is contagious...? Either way, this is a highly recommended read. You won't regret it!

[Dr Penner]

A great premise seldom turns into a greater book and that’s how I felt about From Animal House to Our House. This is a quick and enjoyable read that had me very inspired by the end. Although I agree with other reviewers about how irritating Jill was in some instances in the story, it wasn’t bothersome enough to impact the great story that Ron Tanner has written. If you’re into homebuilding or not, pick this book up.

[Liz]

Just a few months after Ron Tanner started dating his future wife, Jill, he bought a dilapidated Queen Anne row house in Baltimore that had spent the previous decade as a fraternity house. Ron and Jill’s relationship grew along with the restoration of the house, and a few years later, they were married there.

I was delighted to find that there’s a website full of before and after pictures of the house!
http://houselove.org/house/

[Melanie]

I get it if this is the metaphor for Ron's newly found self. BUT - - - I wish he hadn't given such short shrift to some of the most beautifully rennovated communities in Baltimore. He is particularly stingy with Bolton Hill. Also think he missed an opportunity to showcase a lot of Baltimore history - - - but maybe that's his next book!

[Krista]

Set in Baltimore, couple restores old Victorian home previously occupied (and trashed) by a fraternity. Very readable and I enjoyed it. ( The author will be doing a program at JMRL on Wed. Jan. 22. )

[Reading For Sanity]

For this review and more please visit us at http://tinyurl.com/n8q45uw

[Suzanne]

A good read for anyone in the midst of renovating a historic home. Inspiration just when I needed it! Good love story too!

[Austin Storm]

INSPIRING

[Emily]

This book is as much a personal reflection seeking some catharsis as it is a book about renovating a home. In fact, I would say it is more personal memoir than it is anything that discusses the trial and error of renovating a home badly damaged, on your own, with no experience and no money.

There seems no rhyme or reason behind why the author goes into detail describing certain aspects of the home renovation while skipping over other projects entirely.

Also, the author only seems to spend time describing people's physical characteristics when they are black. There's a chapter where he introduces the man who is going to redo the basement and he waxes poetic, in a way not dedicated to any other person in the book, about this man's physical characteristics. The fact that this man then botches the job makes the time dedicated to describing that he's African American seem racist. No one else who botches a job (and there are several) received this kind of description. He doesn't dedicate the kind of time describing the man who fixes the basement (even though he's also African American). It then makes you remember that at the beginning he took the time to explain that the man who would be painting the intricate areas of the roof of the house was Jamaican. It contributed nothing to the story and the beer-drinking roofers who periodically just didn't show up for work were all nameless, faceless, race-less entities. There are plumbers and electricians and many other contractors who are never identified as more than that - probably because they were white.

What started out as a fun read about a man's ill-advised undertaking of a DIY remodel of a thoroughly destroyed house really veered off the path away from entertaining hijinks to a level of self-reflection that seems more like stream-of-consciousness. At a certain point, he stops telling you about the remodel and just talks about his current relationship, his past relationships, and his dad. Honestly, I could have done without the second half of the book and would have enjoyed much more a conclusion about the updates on the house.