Customer Reviews

Not So Big Remodeling: Tailoring Your Home for the Way You Really Live

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It's almost a good thing Remodeling the Not So Big House wasn't out during my remodeling project. I think I would have slept with it under my pillow! I got so much out of a different book in the series that I had to run out and get Remodeling even though my remodeling is done!

It is as well-written, organized and photographed as the other books in the series. I am an EcoBroker Certified real estate agent so I was eager to review the green chapter. I agree with Susanka that, really, the whole book is a green book. The concepts go hand in hand...less space is more green, getting more out of every inch is green, making something beautiful so it lasts is green.

The concepts from the other books carry over. The Not So Big House made such a difference in the plans for our remodel. We were feeling really stuck because the idea of the 5th bedroom that our builder and architect suggested felt so wrong to us. We learned is that if you ask someone like that how to solve a problem they will solve it with a bigger blueprint or a bigger hammer. Not So Big Hosue gives a voice and confidence to the resisting going bigger to solve problems.

There were two outcomes in our design that I directly credit to inspiration from the books. First, we have this fantastic closet that solved our problem of creating a master bedroom in about 1/3 of the space. The bonus was that it also gave us the opportunity to do a facelift on the front exterior. Second, we were trying to maximize the kitchen space. One of the options to get an island in there was to close off the entry between the kitchen and the dining room. After reading the book I realized we would essentially be cutting off 400 square feet of space as we'd never have reason to use the dining room or the living room. Instead we decided to _open_ a doorway between the dining room and the hallway and remove sliding doors between the dining room and the living room. Finally we opted for a peninsula that forces flow between the dining room and the kitchen. Wow! The dining room is now this central gathering and landing space. And, it elevated the living room to more of the grown up family room. The end result is that we use the entire first floor all day long and will probably never have to finish our basement. And all you need is two preschoolers to tell you the flow works. They zoom around as if there are two connecting figure eights in the house...the dining room/kitchen/family room loop and the dining room/living room loop. Such great energy in the house. It's amazing how the whole thing fits together, yet gives us space when we need it. And now that we are done I realize it is the soffits that make the spaces work. We didn't consciously plan them but now that things are painted and assembled so we have rooms again I can really see it in action.

We are so grateful for the insights and inspiration we were hunting for! I'm sure you will find great inspiration in Remodeling the Not So Big House as well.

With Not So Big Remodeling: Tailoring Your Home for the Way You Really Live Sarah Susanka and co-author Marc Vassallo employ the mantra "build better, not bigger" to present a go-to resource book on sustainable design for homeowners and architects alike.
Using her own classic Cape style house as an example Susanka offers three options for efficient remodeling: work within the existing footprint; consider a small bump-out and lastly build an appropriate addition. Often minor changes are all that are needed to fix an awkward layout or improve flow within the house and the authors always emphasize integrating the old with the new so the house is cohesive and aesthetically pleasing.
The reader is challenged to really consider the way they live within their homes and although most of the book is dedicated to making small spaces more useful Susanka also tackles large houses that are out of proportion to the human scale and offers smart solutions to make them more comfortable.
Not So Big Remodeling is glossy enough to keep on the coffee table yet packed full of plans and blueprints and I would be happy to own it for the photography alone. Many of the houses featured have beautiful natural wood trim and doors with a Craftsman feel that is immediately appealing. But there's so much more to this book than obvious visual appeal, it contains tips and ideas on every page that can be incorporated into any remodeling project - large or small - including the updating of my house.

Finally, a Not So Big optimized for those not stick-building their own home. Not only is revamping an existing home a greener option than building new (no matter how sustainable), it's often more financially feasible. Great overall update ideas as well as practical approaches to usability and beauty.

I ordered my copy of Not So Big Remodeling long before the release date. As soon as it arrived I flipped through every page. Then I began a thorough reading. Each floor plan prompted a good hour of study and comparison. As I revisit a particular passage for further understanding, there are more tidbits to be gleaned. Sarah Susanka and Mark Vassallo have done an amazing job of pulling together the aesthetic, the practical, and the economical aspects of transforming an existing house into one Not So Big. Sarah has invited us into her own personal spaces. By imagining her processes of living, working, creating, being in the settings pictured and described in the new book, she inspires images of our own Not So Big lives. I think of Sarah Susanka's collection of books as one story printed in several volumes. Maybe the collective title would be Solutions for Creating a Not So Big Life by Design Inside and Outside a Not So Big House.

Other reviewers have already covered many of the things I admire about this book. I'd simply like to add a few other points.

The layouts are beautifully done. Having worked in publishing, I realize this never happens accidentally but is the result of careful planning and editing. The result here, which combines text, beautiful photos, blueprint-style sketches, helpful captions, pull-out quotes, sidebars, and bulleted lists, is so masterful it could serve as a textbook for graphic designers.

Sarah Susanka introduces many design concepts, such as "moving toward light" and "patterns," within the context of particular situations to show exactly how to make them work in existing spaces.

It's also obvious that her co-writer, Marc Vassallo, helped to keep the text lean yet expressive. Susanka herself confessed (in the preface to "More Not So Big Solutions for Your Home") that she has a tendency toward wordiness. That's not a problem here. Each section features a beguiling lead and then gets right to the point.

This book is a classic that I've turned to again and again whenever I need inspiration. And although we haven't moved any walls or done anything that's usually considered "remodeling," this book helped my husband and I redo several rooms -- with immensely satisfying results.

My family lives in a small, 90+ year old house and we are at the point where we need to decide to put a significant investment into upgrading the property or to dress it up for sale and buy something else. We love the location and the lot, but were having a hard time seeing how we could go another 15+ years in this house without a second bathroom or additional space.

This book opened my eyes to the possibility of keeping our home and rethinking how to make better use of its existing structure - without a major addition project. It is amazing to see where small, thoughtful changes could make HUGE differences (i.e. breaking through a wall to add a much needed breakfast bar & open up the kitchen to the dining room or the possibility of taking a piece of the three season porch and creating a first floor powder room).

I can't wait to sit down with my architect and discuss some of the solutions presented in Not So Big Remodeling!

If you are thinking of selling your "not so big" house, check out this book first. It may help you realize that you need to improve your existing space rather than add to it.

Tailor a home for the way you really live with this companion to THE NOT SO BIG HOUSE. It covers small changes that can be made in a home to change it, challenges modern remodeling wisdom to go beyond just square footage concerns, and encourages 'thinking better' for more efficiency and workability. An excellent survey of modern design challenges and solutions, this is a pick for any library catering to homeowners and apartment dwellers alike.

I've been a fan of Sarah Susanka's ideas for many years and my only but biggest regret was before leaving the mid-atlantic region upon retiring, we didn't stick around and find a 'seasoned charmer' in the region and use her advice. I won't be making that mistake again, now that we're back. I read this book from cover to cover and am amazed at the vision Sarah has for making the homeliest, non-functioning spaces transformed into accommodating and useful sanctuaries.
If I could afford to anonymously drop off a copy of this book on everyone's front step who's home is oversized and believes bigger is better, Ms.Susanka might have to appoint me President of her fan club if the job's not already taken.

The whole "not so big" series is wonderful. This is a great addition and especially relevant today when the McMansion trend is not as in favor. Live like royalty in your own small house!

The same goes for this book as her "Not So Big House" book.
The rooms pictured in her book look so spacious ... because the rooms ARE big. She seldom actually admits in her books how big her rooms really are, or the square footage of her houses. She gives no numbers, but just asserts to us over and over that her houses are "not so big". Actually her remodels, with a lot of built-ins, do not make sense for a changing family that needs to reconfigure often within a small space. I can tell you that her rooms are huge compared to the ones in my 1500 sq. ft. house, which accommodates a family of four plus multi-month stays by extended family. She does not deal with the real world, like, for example, children. She goes for cuteness, like little window seats, which no one will sit in for any length of time because they are so uncomfortable. She likes the craftsman style - which is nice, but it does not fit well with the basic design of every house that someone might already own. She does not deal with real issues with small houses, for example that they also come with small yards. Not all of us can just put a window anywhere on the wall to look out on a beautiful view. It took me quite a while to figure out that her houses are not really not-so-big. What a waste of money her books were. I'd like her to give me my money back for selling under false pretenses. Don't buy these books for real construction ideas. They are really for the guilty rich who want to convince themselves that their 2000-3000-sq. ft. house is "not-so-big", and justify spending a lot of money inside it for custom built-ins that will be torn out when their current lifestyles change.