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From Amazon
"Do more with less space" is the key concept of this down-to-earth design guide for both new home builders and remodelers. Not So Big Solutions for Your Home provides simplified design principles in jargon-free language for the nonprofessional contemplating a residential building project. Architect and author Sarah Susanka, well-known for 1998's The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live, offers advice on how to redefine space to create happier living areas that function more efficiently. For example, analyzing the family's television habits and planning set placement in advance may avert future squabbles and smooth out daily living. Thinking of each exterior door as the location of a sequence of common events (such as hauling in the groceries or taking off muddy boots) will help the planner create a neater entryway adapted to the family's specific needs. Throughout, plentiful drawings and photos illustrate simple solutions to such common problems as unused living rooms, dark bedrooms, and crowded kitchens. Readers seeking to remodel on a budget will be heartened by Susanka's contention that it is often best to stay within existing walls and avoid building out. All in all, the book provides a lot of theoretical food for thought for lay people preparing to begin the daunting task of either building a new home or remodeling an old one. --Judy Fireman
From Library Journal
Dubbed "America's Favorite Home Architect" by Fine Homebuilding magazine, where her "Drawing Board" column appears, Susanka here presents a small compilation of 31 essays from the column that offer a number of solutions to household design problems both big and small. Throughout, she stresses the importance of practical designs that increase a home's aesthetic appeal and allow homeowners to use their houses in the most efficient way. Susanka offers an eclectic mix: tips on site selection, mud room design, planning to fit specific furniture, creating a family room that works, personalizing with tile, and planning window seats, pantries, TV placement, and floor plan changes. Most of the projects are major undertakings, but several could be done inexpensively. Certainly, most homeowners could find something in this title to increase their enjoyment of their home. Susanka's previous two books have sold over half a million copies, so there's sure to be reader interest in this title. Recommended for most public libraries.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
When most people contemplate building a new home, they assume that the first order of business is to choose or design a plan to build. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
When most people contemplate building a new home, they assume that the first order of business is to choose or design a plan to build. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Build or remodel without remorse.,
By
This review is from: Not So Big Solutions for Your Home (Paperback)
Great book on arranging floor plans, lighting, etc. For those about to build or renovate learn how to get what you want while staying in your budget.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
NOT SO FAST THERE,
By misterbeets "misterbeets" (Safe Harbor, MD USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Not So Big Solutions for Your Home (Paperback)
This is a kind of talkative version of your typical architecture magazine. The premise is that the pictures shown are examples of what can be achieved by merely understanding certain underlying principles, as described in the text; the fact is they're simply examples of what can be achieved by hiring professional designers and spending lots of money. Understandable, I suppose, since the author has set herself an impossible task: no one can be expected to have discovered anything really new, some "rule" that has escaped the notice of the millions of homebuilders before them. What's presented as good design, such as open floor plans, is really nothing more than what's currently popular. (The Colonists, for instance, couldn't wait to get rid of theirs, in favor of individual rooms and privacy.)
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bigger is not always better...quality counts!,
By houseinprogress (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Not So Big Solutions for Your Home (Paperback)
Our guiding philosophy and inspiration. An engaging and intelligent defense of building (and renovating) smarter, not bigger. Sarah Susanke has made a career of promoting traditional design principles in a way that speaks to modern situations (many of us can't afford new, huge houses) and responds to the "McMansions" craze that continues to sweep the US. She has a wonderful sense of how to maximize space for personal use. She advocates for built-in furniture, design built around daily activities, and open light-filled design. She had us at "Most architects are afraid to say...'You don't need an addition, you need a cleaning service." She doesn't want to clean out your bank account. She wants you to make the most of what you have...and if you follow her ideas, you will.
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