PETE'S HOUSE

One of the dwindling few who has the chance to watch his own suburban home go up, a very young Pete gets a look at the architect's front and back elevations, meets the contractor and supervisor, and stands by as a succession of workers--masons, carpenters, roofers, plumbers, electricians, painters, and such minor helpers as tinsmiths, tapers, and floor sander--transform Pete's house from a hole in the ground to a shuttered, aluminum-sided split-level on a landscaped lawn. Along the way Pete makes friends with a carpenter who lets him hammer a nail into the new house, and he obtains the plumbers' assurance that they are ""very careful to keep the waste pipes and clean-water pipes separate."" More seriously, he learns at first hand how concrete foundations are poured, sees the wiring go in behind the walls, and finds out the differences among beams, joists, studs, and rafters (though not the meaning of horizontally, which is used in the definitions). Agre's clear, well-composed photos, which show exactly what Sobol describes as going on, will add a new look even to collections that already contain Adkins' hand-drawn How a House Happens (1972) and Myller's more technically detailed From Idea Into House (1974).