This is a sequel to The Not So Big House. In many ways, it is more like a continuation of the first book; it does not necessarily stand on its own. (In fact, I would recommend buying the set with both.) This book introduces some new principles, but the bulk of the book is case studies of houses that were inspired by the "not so big" philosophy. The case studies show that "not so big" is not limited to any single style or region.

The new ideas introduced are:

- pay attention to the third dimension (a floor plan does not tell the whole story)

- get over your fear of "too smallness" (we've lost all sense of coziness because we afraid spaces will be too small)

- use visual weight to manipulate the sense of scale in a space

- frame openings to allow large, continuous spaces to have differentiated subspaces

- visually layer spaces

- consider having a theme to unify different spaces within your home. ( )

Fun book for design ideas on using small space to create greater utility ( )

Beautiful and inspiring.

Another in Susanka's Not So Big books, this one is from 2000 and therefore is not her latest. While there are some interesting houses featured and even a very small condo in New York City I didn't feel that I learned as much from this book as I did from her book on remodeling a home to better fit the 'not so big' philosophy. I would recommend it mostly to those who haven't seen her other books in the series. The most interesting part was at the end where the same generic plan was used as a starting point for two very different houses. One was the Back to Basics version and other she called The Whole Nine Yards version. Although the WNY house was only 400 square feet larger it cost nearly twice as much to build. Yet both were clearly livable for their families.

A great resource for ideas. I didn't realize when I put it on hold at the library that it's a book of house plans, addressing the question many people had after reading Susanka's first book - "how can I get a house like this?". There are 25 plans, each with six to ten pages of photos and texts of actual houses, showing the details that can't be portrayed on a floor plan. This sequel is also an opportunity for Susanka to expand upon, and illustrate further, the ideas of sheltering about activity, interior and diagonal views, that she presented in the first book.

Even though I'm remodeling rather than building from scratch, this was a good read; there are a few remodeling projects in it; our house is less than 1,000 square feet, but I was able to jot down lots of ways we could use built-ins and create alcoves within an existing footprint.