After graduating from the Yale School of Architecture, Don Metz decided to take up a small country practice in lieu of seeking success with a popular commercial firm. His choice led to personal and philosophical fulfillment, as well as recognition as a maverick architect who could build honest, reliable, and sustainable homes. It only followed that he would go on to write several books on architecture. Metz is also a novelist, and in Confessions of a Country Architect, he adroitly blends his writer's craft with his years in architecture to detail a touching and waggish memoir of his career. With warm wry humor and slapstick pathos reminiscent of James Herriot's All Creature's Great and Small, the feisty flatlander modestly recounts the ever-challenging and often-comical life of a country architect. A builder in his own right, Metz is also a practical -- but always creative and problem-solving -- hands-on architect. From his early years working with a weapons-grade jackhammer in a quarry to the construction of an earth-sheltered house, Metz details the panoply of noble goals and eccentric whims of his diverse clientele. Whether you are ready to summon up the courage to build a house, or content with an armchair with a view, Confessions provides a delightful account of the author's adventures as he navigates the awkward, intractable, and hilariously messy job of building dreams.