Tiny Home to Call Your Own: Living Well in Just Right Houses [Paperback]

Patricia L. Foreman (Author), Andy Lee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2004

Impress your neighbors with style and freedom rather than with larger-scle impersonally built square footage. Small is beautiful in housing. Smaller scale homes can be more livable, cozy, magical, homey, enjoyable, low maintenance and easy to clean. They can be more affordable and socially responsible than the current trend of MacMansionization; that is chewing up our farm land. Some tiny homes can be built on existing lots without requiring new land purchase. You can live in an attractive, appealing, upscale house AND have a home that is quality built, architecturally beautiful, highly marketable and profitable. Uses for tiny homes include: A home for anyone who wants less space to take care of in exchange for more time, freedom and money. As a personal getaway away space As a tax-ductable home office, professional work space, writer's or artist's studio, As a rental for passive income. For an elderly parent, student or return-to-the-nest kid to have an independent place of their own, yet be close by. Tiny Homes is leading a grass-roots movement toward smaller homes. It shows that small is beautiful in housing.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This book might mark the beginning of a great and much-needed difference in the world...toward smaller homes. -- Nancy (Scooter) McMoneagle Tiny Homes is a wonderful answer to the problems of urban densification without compromising quality-of-life. Jill Marilley, City Engineer, Washington State Who can afford half-million dollar houses going up everywhere? IÂ’m so happy to find this book as a solution --Kim Labbe, New Hampshire

About the Author

Patricia Foreman and Andy Lee both Class A contractors and green conservation developers in Virginia. They have been building tiny homes for over a decade. Pat n' Andy are the authors of several best selling books on sustainable small-scale agriculture including: Chicken Tractor: The Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil, and Backyard Market Gardening.

Product Details

• Paperback: 212 pages
• Publisher: Good Earth Publications, Inc.; first edition (September 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 096246483X
• ISBN-13: 978-0962464836
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #995,169 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #18 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Home & Garden > Home Design > General
  • #26 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Professional & Technical > Architecture > Building Types & Styles > Residential

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars More rah-rah than practical, January 11, 2006

By 

Chowderhead (Oregon, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tiny Home to Call Your Own: Living Well in Just Right Houses (Paperback)

I got this book thinking it would help me design a small dwelling, but was disappointed. It doesn't contain house plans to compare or copy or detailed descriptions of handling essential systems (heating, plumbing, etc.). Instead it's more about psyching the reader up-- encouraging the reader that it is possible to live in a smaller home, how it could be good for them and the world, how there are issues they might need to deal with (e.g. getting rid of stuff).

That's fine I suppose, but the product seems a bit odd, since anyone who picks this book up to read it probably already believes its arguments on some level. And even those arguments are more anecdotal than systematic. This isn't research as much as it is a recounting of the authors' experiences with a certain kind of semi-suburban, semi-rural client, which again is fine, but it lacks scope and perspective.

I imagine that many readers are like myself, and are looking for more practical info about design and systems. For those things I would look to books like Lester Walker's A LITTLE HOUSE OF MY OWN: 47 GRAND DESIGNS FOR 47 TINY HOUSES and (for interiors) Cristina Paredes' SMALL SPACES: GOOD IDEAS. Both those books cover spaces of less than 500 square feet (unlike many books that are supposedly about "small" spaces and start at 1000 sq ft or larger). The Walker book has some great examples of small dwellings in American history. The Paredes book is a more urban, interior-designy book, but it mostly sticks to a level of artistry that is conceivable for many readers.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical info, August 19, 2005

By 

D. Jones (Crescent City, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tiny Home to Call Your Own: Living Well in Just Right Houses (Paperback)

This book contains practical info about choosing a smaller house. You won't be able to build a house from this book, but it will help you figure out what you want and how to get it. The houses described are small, but not so extreme as to be unlivable. These houses occupy the "just right" niche that makes them affordable and environmentally sound, but still be livable.

BTW- I live alone in a 700sf house. I could be comfortable in half that space if my house were better designed.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Tiny Home Book Huge Waste of Time, April 15, 2007

By 

R. Collom - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tiny Home to Call Your Own: Living Well in Just Right Houses (Paperback)

I rarely feel as cheated as I do from purchasing this book. 90% of the book is devoted to convincing the reader to build and live in a tiny home - extoling the virtues of a smaller home. I purchased the book. I don't need convincing. 5% of the book is the writers bragging about and marketing their business. The remainder of the book is common sense advice that is repeated many times. I am going to follow the writer's advice and down size this book (into the trash can).

The pictures are black & white and very poor quality - quite fuzzy.

It would have been nice for the author to have provided color pictures, floor plans, construction methods specific to small houses, and most importantly - advice on how to layout a small house. The author has the experience to provide this information but left it out of the book.

The bottom line: Save your money. If you live and breathe, you have more common sense than that provided in this book.