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

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.



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Review of The Home Concepts Book UK: Inspiring Designs for Contemporary Houses (Paperback)

An interesting book that features the work of five British architects.It's really an inspirational idea because the houses only exist in digital form.The sixty-one homes each get a spread with two digital pictures, three-quarters front and back and the bit that intrigued me, two digital illustrations presented as three-dimensional floor plans.So each room has generic but realistic items of furniture, carpets and cars in the garage.It all looks amazingly convincing.

The houses are all set in a solitary rustic environment so that the landscape or other structures don't visually get in the way of the property.The sizes vary from 6500 down to just over 1200 square feet.Dimensions are given for all the rooms. Apart from the house spreads there are very generalized chapters about selecting a site, building regulations, sustainable homes, landscape design and a selection of books and websites.

Included with the book is a DVD that features an external virtual tour around each home and what caught my eye here was the attention to detail especially the trees and greenery reflected in all the windows.The larger properties have up-market cars in the drive.

Bear in mind that the houses and related chapters reflect British contemporary house design and regulations but maybe you want to be the first on your block living in something rather different.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.


Product Description
This title comes as a set of Book & DVD. This book is designed for self-builders who are looking for a variety of ideas, designs and information on how to do it right, with style and in keeping with planning regulations. The book features over 60 designs from five home designers (based in London, Inverness, Shrewsbury, Blackpool and Devon) all presented as high quality images, 3D floor plans and 360 animations on the accompanying DVD. Both inspiring and motivational, the "Home Concepts Book UK" also offers practical advice with sections on selecting a site, house design, landscape design and eco-technologies, and is a great guide at any stage of a self-build.

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