Customer Reviews

House You Build -OSI (American Institute Architects)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Most houses that you see come in two choices: First is the standard sub-division spec house, designed to not offend any possible purchaser and to not exactly fit any family; Second you might call the houses of the rich and famous, where the houses are spectactular, but they don't talk about how many hundreds of thousands they cost.

This book takes a different view. It discusses houses in the $150,000 to $200,000 range that have been customed designed to fit the needs and desires of the owners. It covers some 20 houses in detail. The special conditions caused by legal restrictions, difficult building lots, everything is discussed. Of special interest is the discussion and illustration of using standard stock components, many of them industrial in intent in innovative ways to reduce the cost of the house by thousands of dollars. While doing so, the designers have been careful to integrate these components with standard structures to produce a home both inexpensive yet customized to the needs of the owner both functionally and in appearance.

I originally got this book from the library. It was so full of good ideas and helpful advice that I decided to buy it.

A wide range of house styles are covered in the book, from contemporary to more conventional, but they're all interesting. I especially liked the author's suggestions for minimizing costs while ensuring beauty and construction quality.

I'm not planning to build a house, but am planning to remodel. This book is full of excellent photos and ideal solutions.

This is a good book for both the professional and the layman. The professional will most certainly find him/herself saying, "I knew that" at some points in the book, but will also glean kernels enough to make it worth his/her time. It is written in a style that is understandable by the "common man", yet doesn't condescend to the professional.

For the layman interested in good design and with a limited, realistic budget, to whom quality is greater in the equation than quantity, it is a veritable treasure trove of interesting and attainable design ideas. If you are embarking on the adventure of building a custom home, you will find inspiration and a vision of what the end goal will be.

The houses in this book are representative of real world examples, which is very refreshing, nodding neither to the McMansions that are so popular in today's subdivisions, nor to their hybrid architecturally aloof cousins on the other end of the spectrum (both being ostentatious in their own right).

If you are interested in alternative ideas to home building and want to get out of the big box store and track home mentality, read this book.

I bought this book with high hopes after seeing the reviews. But it turned out to be a big waste of money. As another reviewer noted, most of these homes are unique and built for specific sites that have views, or wilderness, etc. Many of the homes are quite small and not suitable for families with 2+ kids who want great rooms, guest rooms, offices, etc. The only really useful info are the photos which show a few design styles that you may wish to incorporate into your house, i.e. non-traditional open staircases. But most of the styles can be found in any home magazine.

If you are building a small retirement home and want a unique design then maybe this book is for you. But if you are like the rest of us who are looking to build a nice 2-story family home on a standard suburban lot in a classical cape cod, rambler, victorian or even contemporary style you won't find any useful plans or information. I give it 2* only because it was slightly more useful than the truly awful Dummies book (see my other review).

These are not houses that people would build. I was very disappointed in this book. The houses pictured were only the weird modern type that most people wouldn't build. We don't want to build a standard boring "production" home but these were just too far out there.