or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
More Buying Choices
77 used & new from $4.99
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Creating the Not So Big House: Insights and Ideas for the New American Home
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

Creating the Not So Big House: Insights and Ideas for the New American Home (Paperback)

~ (Author), Grey Crawford (Photographer) "THERE'S A TREMENDOUS POWER to naming ideas and concepts..." (more)
Key Phrases: many people, square foot, work area, One Phase, Timeless Classic, Affordable Comfort (more...)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
List Price: $24.95
Price: $16.47 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $8.48 (34%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Monday, November 23? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
35 new from $9.40 41 used from $4.99 1 collectible from $24.95

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Hardcover, September 30, 2000 $23.07 $13.99 $4.60
  Paperback, January 31, 2002 $16.47 $9.40 $4.99

Frequently Bought Together

Creating the Not So Big House: Insights and Ideas for the New American Home + The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live (Susanka) + Inside the Not So Big House: Discovering the Details That Bring a Home to Life (Susanka)
Price For All Three: $52.52

Show availability and shipping details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live (Susanka)

The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live (Susanka)

by Sarah Susanka
4.1 out of 5 stars (154)  $21.12
Inside the Not So Big House: Discovering the Details That Bring a Home to Life (Susanka)

Inside the Not So Big House: Discovering the Details That Bring a Home to Life (Susanka)

by Marc Vassallo
4.6 out of 5 stars (23)  $14.93
Not So Big Solutions for Your (Susanka)

Not So Big Solutions for Your (Susanka)

by Sarah Susanka
4.6 out of 5 stars (19)  $15.61
Home by Design: Transforming Your House Into Home

Home by Design: Transforming Your House Into Home

by Sarah Susanka
4.3 out of 5 stars (26)  $23.10
Outside the Not So Big House: Creating the Landscape of Home (Susanka)

Outside the Not So Big House: Creating the Landscape of Home (Susanka)

by Grey Crawford
3.3 out of 5 stars (19)  $14.93
› Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Sarah Susanka has a not-so-insignificant idea in Creating the Not So Big House. She contrasts the glamorous, glossy-photo house plans of vaulted ceilings and palatial living rooms with the livable, day-to-day pleasure of cozy window seats and comfortable breakfast nooks, and her conclusion is resonating with families across the country: bigger but shoddier isn't better than smaller and well made. Descriptors like "spacious" and "expansive" fill the real-estate promos, but Susanka seeks the elusive yet affordable qualities that turn a house into a home. And she provides more than mere ideals around which to rally. She selected 25 house designs, from a southwestern adobe to a Minnesota farmhouse to a New York apartment to a Rhode Island summer cottage, and she profiles each home in great and well-illustrated detail.

Her ideas for interior as well as exterior views, airy stairways, diagonal views, and framed openings translate well in an array of different houses appropriate to childless couples and large families, as well as hot climes in Texas and cooler regions in Vermont. There are traditional designs to fit in with Massachusetts styling and contemporary designs to adapt to California cliffs, and they range from country spaces to suburban homes to city apartments.

Susanka selected house plans that are available for sale, because her purpose is to make affordable quality housing accessible to the general public, but they're also presented as catalysts for your own designs, because the house that worked for one person might inspire the plan that would work best for you. Whether you're in the market for a new house, want pragmatic renovation ideas, or are interested in the concept of space-saving abodes from a city-planning, philosophical perspective, Susanka's book is an eye-opener and a mind-expander, providing conceptual and practical tools to assist you in planning your own livable home. --Stephanie Gold --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.



From Library Journal

Susanka's very successful The Not-So-Big House (LJ 9/15/98) nimbly capitalized on the 1990s small-is-beautiful wave that touted voluntary simplicity, downsizing, and contentment with one's lot in life (especially if that lot includes an average, middle-class house in the suburbs). This follow-up features 25 new and redesigned homes thought to embody "not-so-big" principles such as shelter around activity, double-duty rooms, interior and diagonal views, variety of ceiling heights, importance of personal space, and so on. The book's design allows readers to flip through looking for ideas about trendy house typesDPueblo-style, the old farmhouse, Shaker cottage, shingle-style, Fifties retro. Simple house plans and carefully constructed photos of well-appointed space abound. The writing is unchallenging, nontechnical, sunny, even cozy. Couples and architects are referred to by given names (Barry and Susan, Sally and Gary), and each episode follows a rather numbing, prosaic patternDunhappiness with present quarters, lifestyle examination, and problem-solving (unfortunately without expenses listed), concluding with "not-so-big" bliss. While the first book is not required prior reading, this is best recommended for libraries where the first book proved popular.DRussell T. Clement, Northwestern Univ. Lib., Evanston, IL
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 264 pages
  • Publisher: Taunton Press (February 1, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1561586056
  • ISBN-13: 978-1561586059
  • Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 9.9 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,587 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

    #3 in  Books > Home & Garden > Home Design > House Plans
    #6 in  Books > Home & Garden > Small Homes & Cottages
    #7 in  Books > Home & Garden > How-to & Home Improvements > Home Repair

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

Sarah Susanka
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Sarah Susanka Page
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
THERE'S A TREMENDOUS POWER to naming ideas and concepts. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
many people, square foot, work area, one space, window seat, outdoor room, new house, floor plans, living space, dream house, hearth room, old house, main living area, feel bigger, wraparound porch, breakfast nook, guest bedroom, living areas, interior designer, main floor, houses today, work surface, sight lines, lower section, third dimension
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
One Phase, Timeless Classic, Affordable Comfort, Golden Mean, Place of Cool Remove, The Essence of Home, Architects Builder, Playfully Sustainable, Southern Comfort, Cottage Community, Three Easy Pieces, Elegant Simplicity, Berkeley Hills, Long Island Sound
New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 3 books:
 
1 book cites this book:

Books on Related Topics (learn more)
 
 

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Creating the Not So Big House: Insights and Ideas for the New American Home
59% buy the item featured on this page:
Creating the Not So Big House: Insights and Ideas for the New American Home 4.3 out of 5 stars (56)
$16.47
The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live (Susanka)
17% buy
The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live (Susanka) 4.1 out of 5 stars (154)
$21.12
Inside the Not So Big House: Discovering the Details That Bring a Home to Life (Susanka)
10% buy
Inside the Not So Big House: Discovering the Details That Bring a Home to Life (Susanka) 4.6 out of 5 stars (23)
$14.93
Not So Big Remodeling: Tailoring Your Home for the Way You Really Live
8% buy
Not So Big Remodeling: Tailoring Your Home for the Way You Really Live 4.8 out of 5 stars (8)
$21.12
Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(6)
(3)
(3)
(3)
(3)
(3)
(2)
(2)
(1)
Agree with these tags?

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more
 

Customer Reviews

56 Reviews
5 star:
 (34)
4 star:
 (11)
3 star:
 (7)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (56 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
345 of 349 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Better than The first book, October 11, 2000
This review is from: Creating the Not So Big House: Insights and Ideas for the New American Home (Hardcover)
It's rare that a sequel is better than the original. This was one of them. Where The Not So Big House was pretty and pretty much content-free, this book provided real floorplans, and real houses, which I feel helped to communicate Susanka's ideas more clearly.

I also found this book far less irritating than the first, and therefore more useful, in no small part because some of her hard -- and alienating -- positions have been considerably softened. No longer does she claim that dining rooms are obsolete because "nobody uses them" (I do). She seems much more willing to accept that there are lots of different lifestyles out there, and a house should be built to work with the lifestyle of its owners.

If you are in the planning phases for a new house, or are just looking for ideas on how to make your current house more liveable, this is an excellent resource. In fact, I would suggest that you skip the first book altogether.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
86 of 86 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Not so big book..., September 18, 2000
By Richard M Spinabella (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Creating the Not So Big House: Insights and Ideas for the New American Home (Hardcover)
This is a beautifully illustrated book that seeks to demonstrate, that when it comes to homes, smaller may be better. The book is well organized and thoughtful, presenting key concepts for creating the 'not so big house.' If I have any regrets, its that the book doesn't go far enough--all but two of the featured houses are over 1,000 square feet, and the majority of the concepts still require large budgets to execute. I was hoping to see more affordable concepts and solutions illustrated. Still, for anyone looking for ideas for implementing the concepts of smallness, this book is worthwhile.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
84 of 86 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars More great ideas from Susan Susanka, May 29, 2001
By Paul Martin (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Creating the Not So Big House: Insights and Ideas for the New American Home (Hardcover)
Here, Susan Susanka picks up where she left off in The Not So Big House. In some places, it seems that this book is almost a response to the negative reviews in this forum of her first book. One of the most important additions is a sidebar on page nine, where she clarifies the meaning of Not So Big:

". as a rule of thumb, a Not So Big House is approximately a third smaller than your original goal but about the same price as your original budget. The magic is that although the house is smaller in square footage, it actually feels bigger. I'm not advocating that people live in small houses and get used to feeling cramped. A Not So Big House feels more spacious than many of its oversized neighbors because it is space with substance, all of it in use every day."

In summary, this is not a way to save money, but a way to use the existing budget more effectively. The money saved on square footage is invested in the little things that make a house a home: built i!n bookcases, storage solutions, clutter areas, reading nooks, and other architectural features which most designers omit.

In principal, there is no reason these ideas could not be applied to any style and to any budget. Susanka unwittingly raised the first question in her original book, when many critics complained of the sameness of design. She answers it here. The bulk of the work is a survey of 25 projects of other architects from around the country. Because so many designers are represented, we see a much greater variety of styles in this book.

If there is a common thread among these projects, it is the use of partial walls, which divide spaces while keeping sight lines open. Rooms are constructed on a modest scale, but seem larger because of the design. Spaces are also defined by variations in ceiling heights, a device which can be as inexpensive as a soffit. The designers also put a lot of thought into built ins and other little touches which make a big di!fference everyday living. There is also a great deal of good design here, and some (but not all) of the ideas can be achieved without a large budget.

The organization of the book invites browsing. One tends to pick out sections in random order rather than cover to cover. There is a great deal in this book which doesn't appeal to me as an idea for my own house, but I still enjoy the range of ideas which are represented here.

In her final chapters, the author raises, but does not settle, the second question: whether such designs are possible for a project on a tight budget. She talks at great length about the factors which add to the cost of a house. In the two final examples, both from her own firm, she presents two versions of the same house: the Back to Basics House, and the Whole Nine Yards House. The two use the same basic footprint, but there the resemblance ends. The first uses inexpensive materials and a minimum of detailing. Visual interest was added with !careful attention to paint color and occasional lowered soffits. The second house makes extensive use of wood and stone, bump-outs, a shed dormer and other features which double the price of the house. It is a fascinating discussion, and by itself worth the cost of the book.

Since the source of her material is other architects, the projects presented here tend to be on the expensive side. If money is the ultimate concern, it is hard to justify an architect's fee. In addition, the construction of homes follows the same economic laws as the manufacture of any other product, whether it be computers or automobiles. Truly affordable products are produced in large quantities on an assembly line. As customization increases, so does the price. Even though homes are built one at a time, tract home builders (who build the homes that most of us live in) find economies of scale which allow them to compete on price. The projects featured here involve quite a bit of design, and that !alone places a limit on their affordability.


The plans for many of these houses are available by mail order. That is a major step in the right direction. If a tract home builder ever picks up on these principles, that is when we will start to see a major impact. That is something we can all look forward to.
Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Not So Big
Creating the Not So Big House by Sara Susanka speaks to my quality over quantity motto. There is something to say about a well designed house. Read more
Published 4 months ago by K. McCartney

5.0 out of 5 stars The antidote to the McMansion
Sarah Susanka, an architect orginally based in Minnesota, has written an extremely valuable book about creating comfortable living space in a small house. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Carl Stewart

5.0 out of 5 stars Not So Big House-an Idea Whose Time Has Come
Hopefully all the people who are supposed to be interested in preserving the natural world will buy into Susanka's idea and build smaller, more useful houses rather than energy... Read more
Published on November 9, 2007 by Sassy

3.0 out of 5 stars The not so big house is more of a Not so inexpensive house
We have read both books and did find some things interesting, there was only one or two houses in either of the books about the Not So Big House that would have worked for us... Read more
Published on June 20, 2007 by Stuck in Pittsburgh!

5.0 out of 5 stars A must when designing your home
We are remodeling our house and my daughter and husband are about to build a new house. A friend of us got many great ideas from this book when they built their home, so they... Read more
Published on June 9, 2007 by E. Kalman

5.0 out of 5 stars MORE NOT SO BIG
A FURTHER EXPLORATION OF THE NOT SO BIG PHILOSOPHY, QUALITY OVER QUANTITY. INTERESTING AND INFORMATIVE, GOOD COMMON SENSE.
Published on May 3, 2007 by E. S. Noyes

5.0 out of 5 stars What a Great Idea Book
Creative ideas for the practical person. No cute gismos and such, just solid ideas and ways to make them work. Highly recommended.
Published on March 11, 2007 by AuctionMart2

2.0 out of 5 stars Good Idea, But . . .
Her premise that quality beats quantity is a good one. Unfortunately, her taste in architecture (or at least interior design) leaves a lot to be desired -- most of her examples... Read more
Published on December 28, 2006 by Devoted Reader

4.0 out of 5 stars more of the same
The Author expands on her first book.
It is is good to see an American architect prepared to criticise some of the big names. Read more
Published on November 21, 2006 by N. M. Cameron

4.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring book with one big flaw
As I read this book, I found some ideas that will be very useful in designing my small handcrafted log home. Read more
Published on August 16, 2006 by crisw

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   

Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)

Look for Similar Items by Category

Look for Similar Items by Subject

Search Books by subject:

























i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...
 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.