Inside the Not So Big House: Discovering the Details that Bring a Home to Life

This book wasn’t what I had hoped for and unfortunately the ideas didn’t pertain to me or what I was looking for.

Sarah books are a staple in my books of design collection. I refer to them frequently. She has a wonderful sense of design as it relates to organization, usefullness,and asthetically pleasing. I wish more designers and architects would use her sensibility and we would not be over run with all the hideous, vapid,mac mansions everywhere. I would reccommend all of her books without hesitation.

This book (as all of Susanka's books) is ideal for both the home owner as well as the house hunter. Regardless of whether you have a large or small home or an expensive high-end or sheet rock box, this book will help you turn your house from a place where you reside into a home where you LIVE. My only complaint about this book is the lack of floor plans. However, you can download most of the floor plans of the projects in this book by going to Susanka's web site (if you can't find it, just google "notsobighouse").

Sarah Susanka's books finally explained why I've never been comfortable in many large homes and why I've always hated huge master suites with tall ceilings. I've been asked many times who my designer is and have friends and colleagues asking me to help with their home design. I just sold a home and buyers were asking my advice with their design problems. The home sold within a week for a record amount for the neighborhood. I owe it all to Sarah's books for rewiring my way of thinking about architecture and design.

I discovered this book from an Orlando Sentinel review. It just makes so much sense, not to have all the duplicated spaces that today's big American homes have. Now really, how many places do you need to have for eating (a breakfast room, a dining room, an eating counter, and a table on the patio)? Think about it. I like the sampling of cosy homes in the book, especially the houseboat. Let's start asking home builders for quality, not just quantity.

There was a time when I wanted and even could say needed a McMansion type house. At the time I had a wife and a house, a boy and a girl, a dog and a cat, a car and a pickup. But the boy and girl grew up, the dog and cat passed on, wife went away and the house wasn't where I wanted to live (or clean, or cool, or heat). So I moved to a less than 1,000 foot house whose age was listed by the tax assessor in 1942 as 'old.' And now I'm in the remodelling mode. This book is a fairly typical architecture picture book. What makes it unique is that it is filled with houses about the size of mine. It shows the interior treatment that some 23 small house owners have used to get the most effective use out of the small space available. What I wanted, and what I got out of the book was a lot of ideas about how to do things. I haven't decided just yet what I'm going to do, but re-doing the floor is next. Then the kitchen. I think I want to do something like page 56 of this book.