Small Houses [antikvár]

Introduction Small houses have always been popular as vacation cabins and country retreats, but today they are becoming increasingly popular as primary residences as well. Small wonder. Small houses can be cheaper to build, and they can be built on smaller lots. They require fewer materials to build and less energy to run. They are quicker to clean and easier to maintain. Small houses also appeal to the evolving American household (smaller families, empty nesters, singles) and to the budgets of young first-time buyers, for whom home ownership has become increasingly difficult. Although small can be beautiful, a small house can also be cramped and unappealing. Even those who want a small house often still want the benefits packaged in a larger house. The challenge faced by builders and designers is how to make a small house feel big enough. This book offers dozens of practical solutions. The 37 articles in this collection come from the first 10 years (issues 1-66) of Fine Homebuilding magazine. They cover a diverse range of houses, all of them under 2,000 square feet. They include new houses and remodels, urban rowhouses and rural retreats, and guest cottages that can double as work studios. Some are superbly designed and engineered, others are simple owner-built creations. There's a playhouse and a tract house and some wonderful advice on how landscaping can make a small house feel larger. Together, these articles give you a big dose of small ideas. - The Editors Note: One thing that small houses share with large houses is that they can burn to the ground. Such was the tragic fate of the Honda house (see pp. 86-89), which was destroyed in the 1991 Oakland-Berkeley fire.