|
The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live Posters
Photos Art
Search for Posters Art Prints, photos and get
results from all the many categories from Amazon including
books, videos, dvds, toys, video games, and more.
|
|
|
Posters Art
Prints Photos collectables |
|
|
|
|
|
|
If for some reason you can't find what the
poster or art print your looking for try using the search boxes
below
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Rating:  -
This book was absolutely awesome. Beautifully illustrated, excellent content, and I totally agree with the idea that McMansions are not the way to go. I'd much rather have a smaller home that has been personalized to me and made beautiful than some big, cold half-empty McMansion.
Rating:  -
I was expecting her projects to downsize to ~1000 square feet. It felt like she was reducing large McMansions to smaller McMansions. Good photographs though!
Rating:  -
"You can only sit in one chair at a time."
This was a great quote I heard about the unnecessary owning of "American houses" with too much space. In spite of the promise and premise of this book, I found practically NOTHING here to be of real value, outside of some beautiful photographs that one can find in any Home & Garden magazine. I had heard so much about it, a "bestseller" and great reviews, that I went ahead and ordered it; too bad I hadn't seen it in person before I purchased it. One look and it would have been back on the shelf, probably.
The entire book seems to be a short "essay" or "article" that was then illustrated with many unrelated large photos and small diagrams (without dimensions, I might add). The text doesn't match the photos on the same page in many cases, making it very difficult or impossible to read through. The book has been laid out with the photos as the main thing on the page, and text seems to be inserted here and there to fill up any blank space.
I never could really read the book or use it at all since I was constantly trying to figure out "what went with what." I have to agree with another comment that said this book was really just a sales & marketing effort" for her architectural firm. What else could it be? 2,000 sq. ft. is NOT a "not so big house." I won't go into anymore about that, since others have already done it and probably much better than me.
Here's two in particular that I LOVED reading:
Review by "Reginleif II" & reply by "Contented:"
Thank you BOTH so much for your hilarious and exact, on point, review and comments... I was thinking the same thing about this dratted book, wondering why - after reading nothing but "bestseller" and "glowing reviews" what exactly I was missing! Now I know... that outdoor backyard BBQ pit grilling "spotted owls" and more. Of course, I would have to draw the line at "baby seals" (and all the other endangered species you mention) but "tongue in cheek" this one had me laughing so hard I just about fell off the bed!
The whole thing, in fact. Some people would call me a "liberal," but the Bobo factor has always turned me away. Just like "Contented" said, next I too will enjoy googling "Bobos in Paradise." Thanks for an excellent way to end this Happy Thanksgiving weekend.
Honest to God, until I read some of these critiques here on Amazon, I thought I was losing my mind! I didn't see ANYTHING "small" about that house. I build houses and specialize in creating and restoring the most beautiful little houses (by the time I'm done) which are all under 1,000 sq. ft.
The one I'm in right now is 700 sq. ft. and I have a bedroom, office, large bathroom, kitchen, living room, enclosed sun room, porch and deck... the whole house is like "living in my garden" with sunlight streaming in at all hours of the day. It's really amazing, as I used to have 3,000 sq. ft. and it took a full-time cleaning lady. Now I can do it in about an hour, and I still have just about everything I need.
I also have three storage sheds, to which I've added French doors and used them as long windows on one entire side of the sheds, so they are filled with light and could be a real studio or workroom. Now that's what I call "not so big."
Heck, I had a friend and his girlfriend living in one of the sheds which was fixed up as a little cabin, even had a porta-potty inside, queen bed, shelving, pull out couch, TV, microwave, 10 ft x16 ft (160 sq. ft) w/deck, and they had everything THEY needed. And I DON'T live in California, but an hour outside of Raleigh out in the country (where the author Sarah Susanka lives).
Now that's what I call "living well in small spaces." If you have a beautiful garden, you really "live" outdoors, even if it's just looking out your window. The house is really just a space for a few functions, and the total ENVIRONMENT is what counts. The way the light falls into the room, seeing the moon and stars overhead outside your bedroom window; sitting outside on a small deck or balcony and drying off in a robe or towel... fountains, walkways, park benches, blooming trees, shrubs and flower beds... and a beautiful place to work, cook and sleep indoors; what more do you need? That's the way I, and most people I know, "really live." In the workroom or bedroom or in front of the TV or computer. When you get down to it, none of those spaces take up very much space.
Counting the view of the garden as "living space" really stretches your living AREA just by looking out French doors and windows. If you have hard paving (wood, brick, concrete, flagstone etc.) outdoors with walkways that go all around the house, the garden suddenly becomes magically accessible, and you will find yourself outside a lot more of the time. Who needs a big or "not so big" house if you can go outdoors? Even if you are indoors, adding double windows to walls and glass paned French doors extends your site line to the edge of the property or a line of screen hedges or trees, which doubles or triples the "feel" of the space you are inhabiting. It's really pretty marvelous, and this book does not address any of this.
Sight lines from inside the house mean more to the design of a structure than just the floorplan and arrangement of squares or rectangles we call "rooms." You are just moving from one box to another. It's like living in a maze, and you can hardly find your way out. Every house should be sited on it's own lot, with doors, windows, entrance and exits designed to take the entire property into account. Making sure to put in upstairs windows that allow vistas of the trees and surrounding properties changes everything; it's like "living in the trees" and enjoying the fall color and the Spring blush. It changes everything. Being able to enjoy the whole world" at your fingertips and eyesight, and hearing bird songs in the morning means a lot more than simple "square footage," no matter how much you do or don't have.
At least this is how I design and built all the little cottages I have done, and they all seem to be just perfect for one or two people, or small families without too many kids. Adding children of course changes things somewhat, but that's another discussion.
By the way, I'm a contractor, landscaper and computer programmer, and I get more conservative with each passing year. Oh, My God. Am I turning into my parents?
Thanks again to the reviewers and commentators that saw this thing in the same light I did. Made me feel "sane" again after all the b.s. in the book. Now, what do I do with it now that I purchased it? Donate it to the library? Didn't make any sense to me...
Now to find a real book on "small spaces" or write one of my own. Any suggestions?
Rating: -
I came across this book while looking for ideas for a major renovation, and it sure gave me some. It was by far the most helpful of all the books I uncovered, and I only wish I'd found it earlier in the design process. The author has an overall philosophy -- save by cutting back on space, and spend what you save on pleasing and efficient detail. She elaborates that philosophy with many smaller ideas and concepts. She discusses and illustrates the aesthetic principles that make an environment pleasing to the senses, and she addresses concrete design problems like how to provide for TV viewing. The kitchen counter or family dining area in a Susanka house is not cluttered with magazines and bills, for example, because she sees a mail-sorting area as one of the functional necessities that must be provided for in a well-designed house of today, and therefore just as necessary as an eating area.
This is the first of a whole suite of books Susanka has written on the not so big house. There is a certain amount of repetition in them, for sure, but she develops her themes more fully through all of them and I enjoyed them all. I was not very knowledgeable when I started, and more sophisticated readers might not find the book as helpful and exciting as I did, but I recommend it wholeheartedly to the average person who wants a homebuilding project to turn out well and isn't quite sure how to make it so.
Rating:  -
I liked this book as it confirmed that bigger isn't better. Another great book on making a smaller house look larger is "The House that Faux Built: Transform Your Home with Paint, Plasters and CreatityThe House That Faux Built
|
