Not So Big House Coll-2cy (Susanka),   ISBN:9781561586271

Customer Rating: 

I bought these books in anticipation of building a home within the next 5-10 years. My friend recommended them as she is doing renovations on her home and found them useful.
The building and planning philosophy in the first book was clearly laid out and easy to follow. The book includes helpful pictures and interesting side bars.

The second book supports the first with 25 specific plans for homes that fit into the building and planning philosophy of THE NOT SO BIG HOUSE. These plans are varied and the pictures and descriptions are clear and helpful.

I would recommend these books for anyone planning on building an original and comfortable home.

Customer Rating: 

The principles described in the Not So Big House Collection are very useful to anybody considering having a new home built or remodeled. The method of analyzing the rooms for utility and size are simple, easy to apply and provide at the end a well thought out list of what the design needs and what is not needed. Its too expensive to build a house with space in it that is not needed, yet many people do that. I eliminated about 25% of the square footage I thought I needed by using this book collection.

This would even be useful for persons looking at purchasing existing homes. It teaches how to look at a house and figure out if the space is useful and comfortable.

Customer Rating: 

This book has many nice pictures but we did not get many usable ideas for our house project. Many suggetions are just too expensive and too custom to be practical unless you have an unlimited budget.

Customer Rating: 

after reading the not so big house I understood and could explain to my husband why I didn't like the plans our architect had drawn for us. We have now changed the plans, the extension is off, we are just knocking down a wall. This book really opend my eyes, Our remodell is going to be better and we will probably spend less money.

Customer Rating: 

This series is really targeted at people in a position to buy their own lot and build a custom home. But there is a lot more to take away from the books if you are not in that situation.

In the days of mcmansions everywhere, reading the books reminds us that we are really good a wasting space. Now with the cost of energy rising rapidly, a smaller house to heat and cool is a financially good idea.

This books remind us that there are things like built in cabinets, chests and book cases in places like bedrooms that can maximize the utilization of space. These things don't require building a new house, just thinking about a room differently then it is currently being used. These book help spark that creativity.