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Oct 10, 2008

Shelah rated it:

Occasionally described as the JK Rowling of architecture, Sarah Susanka's books all follow a similar theme-- smaller, exceptionally designed homes with personal details are much more pleasant to live in than impersional McMansions.

In the next six or seven months, we'll be going through the process of buying a new home. When we bought our last two houses, our MO was simple-- buy the biggest house we could afford (and it probably still wouldn't be big enough). This time, it's a differe More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 25, 2008

Greg rated it:

This book should really be titled "The EXPENSIVE Not So Big House".

This is not an idea book for those contemplating an inexpensive small starter home. Rather, the author advocates downsizing the square-footage of a house in order to spend more money on the details that make a home feel comfortable.

Another peeve: In recommending the perfect "not so big house", the author makes sweeping assumptions about the lifestyles of others (i.e. people rarely use More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Apr 18, 2011

Sophie rated it:

This book was a real eye-opener. It's astounding to me that the concept of not building rooms we're not going to use is so revolutionary, and yet I had never thought of it before. It made me rethink my own living space, even though at this stage of my life I just live in small apartments--things such as, do we ever really use the dining table for eating, or is it just an extension of the kitchen counters? The parts of this book about which activities take place in which rooms was really helpful More...

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Feb 24, 2010

jess rated it:

This is a terrible book. The houses in this book are more than twice the size of my house! I already mentioned like 150 times that we bought a house and it's fairly small and we're trying to adjust our lifestyles to use our space better. And actually, our house is 1100-1200 square feet, which is not *really* small. Basically, this book is for people who are rich beyond my lived experience and have some novel desire for a smaller house, and a desire to spend as much on it as middle America spends More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jun 07, 2009

Karla rated it:

I first read this book when we were planning to build a "second or seasonal" home that would eventually be a retirement home for us. We wanted to have a long-term, usable house on a smaller footprint. "The Not So Big House" is full of ideas on how to maximze your use of space, storage and design by focusing on quality, NOT quantity (size) and we utilized a lot of her concepts in the design of our house plans. This is not a book on how to save money, but more on how to decr More...

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Jun 04, 2009

Rosalyn rated it:

I really enjoyed the basic premise of this book: that we should focus more on the quality of our homes than on the quantity (i.e. square footage), and that we ought to build (or remodel) homes that reflect our actual lifestyles. I also particularly enjoyed her assertion that we should think about the ways that we use space--where do we spend most of our time? What activities do we do in those spaces?--and compose our homes inline with that thinking. In other words, we may find it worthwhile to s More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2010

LauraW rated it:

Now that we are empty-nesters, I am really thinking of the freeing part of a smaller home - less to heat/cool, less to clean, less burden of clutter. And I love the details in the pictures. We are currently not planning on building a house, but we may need to move in the next year or so. This book has changed the way I view potential new homes.

Years ago, I discovered that we NEVER used our formal dining room, so I converted it to a computer room. Still, far too often, I find houses More...

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Apr 30, 2010

Andrea rated it:

This book had some practical advice about building and remodeling homes. Sometimes books like these can do nothing but reiterate the same point over and over again from different view points. I felt this book did not do that. I especially like the chapter about the house of the future, warning to stay away from fads and stick to the classical side of architecture.
This book really stressed looking at the practical way we live and building a house around those ideas. Do we really use o More...

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Dec 29, 2010

Mindofwinter rated it:

This is a great way to think about how to build or use your house. I have had these concepts in mind for a long time, but I've never seen them articulated so well. The book could probably be shorter, as the concepts are pretty simple and often repeated. The second book in the series -- Creating the Not So Big House -- has more content that you can really put to use after you discover how you want to use your house with this book. If you have to choose one, choose the second book rather than More...

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Feb 12, 2010

Maria rated it:

Although I found this book useful, I couldn't buy in completely to some of her ideas, especially on double duty spaces. Having been forced for thirty years to do this because the rooms in my house are not appropriately sized for my needs, I will be the first to say that making one space serve two functions is not optimal. Other ideas I liked, especially the open kitchen and living room idea. Having said that, I agree wholeheartedly that simplification is the key, McMansions (what I call monst More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 22, 2011

Mary rated it:

I browsed rather than read this updated edition. It has lots of photos & floor plans. There is a new new chapter of houses inspired by original edition. Her taste is not quite mine, but I find the basic idea inspiring. Concepts: build only space you will use; multi-use spaces; spend money on details not on sheer square-footage; public vs private spaces & cozy nooks; tricks to define spaces (lowering part of the ceiling, color differences) and make a space make feel bigger (long site lines, More...

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Feb 04, 2009

mindi rated it:

for me, this was just okay.
for a few reasons:

1. there's no house building in my immediate future, so it just wasn't relevant for me right now.

this, of course, is not a problem with the book, just one reason it probably didn't really appeal to me once I started reading.

2. 3,000 sq. ft. is not my idea of a "not so big house". 3,000 sq. ft., even for my little family of 5, would be excessive.

3. the style of most of the home's featur More...

5 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 15, 2010

Jen rated it:

I took this book to bed with me last night, my trusty yellow post-it notes at the ready. As the night wore on, my trusty post-its became less reliable, they were tiring and dwindling in number. This book is full of post-its now, they stick out from every open side. And they bear little phrases like "Cut glass bowls featured here could be windows, a la Dan Phillips," or "would my library, kitchen, or fireplace be the heart of my house?" I don't know that I can answer that More...

6 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 23, 2011

Karen rated it:

I read this book when it first came out and it launched me on an obsessive quest for the perfect house. As with any obsession, this is both a good and bad thing. Toward the end of Ms. Susanka's books about homes/home construction, they started to leave a bad taste in my mouth. Her type of "authenticity" in design is just a different type of snobbishness and her foray after her architecture books into life coaching books is a perfect example of the arrogance of architects who think t More...

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Jun 21, 2011

Jenny Sudweeks rated it:

I liked this book...mostly. It still featured houses that were way above my budget. But I liked the houses she featured and her basic design concepts--multiple-use rooms, small floorplans, and quality of materials more important than size of house. One chapter was particularly helpful. She explained some of the techniques for keeping the cost of your house down: standard building materials, premade trusses, prefab panels, modern and sleek fixtures and cabinets from the home improvement store More...

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Feb 04, 2009

Katrina rated it:

This book brought a great idea forward but I felt it was lacking in how to implement it. By the end of the book I was a little discouraged because it really seemed beyond what the general population can afford to do. I was relieved to pick up her next book Inside the Not So Big House which went into greater detail how to achieve the not so big house. The second book also made renovations seem more possible on already existing homes. I saw changes could be made little by little to build the ho More...

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Jul 05, 2010

Bickety rated it:

This book was ahead of its time. When written, the McMansion era was at its peak. The book advocates for smaller and more sustainable homes that, at the same time, feel bigger and more comfortable by making full use of the space.

At first glance, many of the space depicted seem very large, they are, for the most part, very modestly sized. The feeling of spaciousness comes from the design.

While this book is directly mainly toward planning new construction or major renovati More...

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Feb 04, 2009

Judith rated it:

It's a good book - borrowed it from the library. It makes you reconsider all the spaces used/unused in the house. Big does not necessarily mean spacious. The author points out that it's difficult to gauge how the house will be like from builders' floorplans.... How does the ceiling height(s) make you feel?
I will keep in mind her insights and suggestions when I look for my future house.
I read both the 1998 and the 10th anniversary editions. Some pictures were the same... it wa More...

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Aug 28, 2008

Ann rated it:

I totally agree with this concept! Great book!

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Jul 25, 2009

Lynda rated it:

Don't know when I became interested in the architecture and decoration of homes, but I remember week after week reading the floorplan page in our Sunday paper as a kid. When I got older I discovered architecture and decorating books and I was hooked.

Sarah Susanka is one of my favorite writers of this genre. She specializes in small space homes. I hasten to affirm I have never been able to afford even these small spaces, most of my money went on books and travel, but I have always More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 03, 2011

Erin rated it:

Until a friend loaned me this book, I'd never heard of Sarah Susanka or her Not So Big House movement. Now, it seems like I'm hearing and reading her name mentioned everywhere, and for good reason. She advocates home design that is functional and beautiful and human-sized, based on how we really live and what we really need our homes to provide for us. The opposite of the McMansion, in other words. And wow, do I ever wish I could live in a home she designed for me! The photos in this book m More...

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Aug 10, 2009

Marika rated it:

Our recent home purchase and subsequent destruction (and soon to be remodeling) of said home made me very excited to receive this highly recommended book on loan from a friend of Sue's. I dove into it the first night and read almost the entire book in a couple of quick days. However, then real life work on my house got in the way and the book was put on the back burner for a few weeks. I finally finished it not long ago and found the book to be highly informative and very interesting.

More...

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Jan 15, 2008

Ben rated it:

I had low expectations when I read this book and I wasn't surprised, which is too bad because I whole-heartedly agree with the philosophy. Susanka is an architect, not a writer. First of all, a physics and math person shouldn't be able to pick out grammatical errors. It's distracting and discouraging to the reader. Second of all, Susanka was extremely repetitive, making the same point over and over again. If she would've limited her use of "Not So Big" or used an acronym (NSB comes to More...

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Feb 27, 2010

Beth rated it:

Definitely a book I've gone back to over and over again. When I was designing a house (which did not come to fruition), this was my bible. While not for everyone, the concepts are very aligned with my emotions toward my living space. Came in very handy when interviewing architects and designers -- those who bought into these concepts were more in tune with my ideas and needs. Highly recommend this book to everyone looking to design a house or rethink an existing living space.

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May 11, 2010

carl rated it:

Great concept of making the most of your building dollars and space, trouble is
it'll cost you a few extra hundred thousand to build a house that
makes such great use of space, whereas your not so perfect, but
same or more square footage suburban home will be affordable.

I do like the ideas she puts forth you have to get over some
of the preaching that a house not made like this is evil, evil
I tell you! A good book for dreaming.

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Aug 07, 2010

Ruth rated it:

I always get a vicarious thrill when looking at photos of fantastic rooms, interesting design ideas, and simply beautiful homes. Probably the same reason I watch HGTV! Haha. I really enjoyed one of the main premises in this book; namely, that today's homes work so much better if the occupants have "zones" where certain tasks are done (not just "rooms" for certain tasks), and that rooms with multiple functions can be arranged in ways that help the flow. This book helps the More...

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Sep 22, 2010

Rebecca rated it:

I found this one to be a very interesting read, but not very practical for those who live in the real world, with real budgets. Great if you're going to be designing your own home, but not too good for renovations.

For the complete review, please go here:
http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_The_...

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Jan 22, 2011

Ben rated it:

I read this because I thought it would be about small houses. Instead it was about, as the title says, "not so big" houses. It's also about staggeringly expensive houses. The basic message of the book is "don't get a massive but bland house; get a smaller (but not necessarily small) more thoughtfully designed house". This is a good message, but it's not the message I was told was inside.

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Jul 26, 2011

Lesley rated it:

The soaring empty spaces common in today's new homes don't bring us a feeling of comfort and peace and belonging. This author and architect believes that homes should be designed for the way we live, with each space having value and usefulness. If you are planning on building a new home or just want ideas on how to make yours more functional, check out any of Susanka's books.

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Jan 12, 2010

Beth rated it:

Highly useful for planning a cozy, beautiful, simple and of course not-so-big home. Some good ideas, lots of conceptual information and resources. A good place to start if you're building or doing major renovations to a home.

We aren't adding or doing major renovations to our not-so-big townhome, but I still found a few good ideas and some concepts to keep in mind.

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