It's impossible for an educational book to match the content dynamics of a website.

Change occurs so quickly a book can contain content that is out of date the day it is published. Only subsequent printing, months or years down the road, might bring it back up to date.

A well-managed, content-based website can be a living learning laboratory updated within minutes of relevant new developments.

However, unless you own a properly equipped lightweight laptop and can pick up a WiFi signal just where you need it, when you need it, it often remains a lot easier to hold a book in your hands than it is to get your hands on digitized information.

A best-of-both-worlds scenario that limits the worst and brings out the best of both a book and a website is to get one learning tool to compliment the other.

That's the crowning achievement of Better Houses, Better Living: What To Look For When Buying, Building Or Remodeling (Home User Press, $24.95), a book that comes with a partner website, BetterHousesBetterLiving.com.

Both were created by Salem OR-based retired engineer and author, Myron E. Ferguson who has been around the block a few times -- enough to inspect nearly 3,000 homes.

It's a stellar dual effort 14 years in the making and an approach to delivering the goods used by far too few information providers.

The book is an expansive update of Build It Right (Home User Press, $18.95) and the new website takes over from UserFriendlyHome.com.

After an explanation of the rudiments of home buying and buying options, the book takes you on a detailed room-by-room, system-by-system, item-by-item home tour laden with photos and illustrations all to help the reader buy or build the best quality home or home improvement possible.

Ferguson provides the low-down on lots, electrical systems, plumbing, HVAC systems, fireplaces and stoves, doors, windows, security systems, materials, finishes, floors, ceilings, roofs, kitchen, bathroom, laundry room and garage components, living areas, floor plans and much more.

While the book takes note that too often homes are not built with the quality and function to best suit the needs of homeowners, it doesn't waste time slamming the building industry.

Instead, the book uses all its 337 pages to help buyers sharpen their critical eye in the buying or building process and thereby overcome the shortcomings of the building industry.

More than being akin to having a wizened home inspector along for the tour, the book gets behind the walls, under the roof and into the systems. Nitty-gritty information detail is as minute as kitchen drawer slides, the direction of the front door swing, and tread width in stairway design. If there's a nail, screw, connector or fastener the book doesn't cover, you probably won't find it in your home.

The book also contains the obligatory index and an extensive learning glossary of the many terms you'll encounter inspecting any home.

The partner site does a good job replacing appendixes typically found in the back of such books and includes eight supplements with topics that include energy considerations, 'green' building, building codes, deed restrictions, home builders, real estate agents and more.

The website also offers a test: "Find The Horrid Little House's Design Flaws," book excerpts, links to helpful consumer websites and an Internet Reference List that reveals Ferguson isn't afraid to send readers off-site for additional information.

The list of websites -- 140 of them -- is presented in groups aligned with chapters in the book. The list is printed in the book, but the hot linked list on the website eliminates the need for you to retype each URL into your browser.

The cost of the book will be more than returned to you when you learn how to find a home that works the way it's supposed to -- before you move in.

Published: December 31, 2004

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.