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Refreshing, interesting, fun, and helpful How refreshing this book is. It starts with an intriguing little house on a traffic island somewhere in California. I must have studied the pictures of that house a thousand times by now. But it has ideas, from storage to room arranging, for homes of somewhere around 2500 square feet or less. The square footage is listed with each house. Many are between 1000 and 2000 square feet. It's about time. McMansions in my neck of the woods are running 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 square feet.. Obscene. I wish more builders and architects would get on board with reasonable home sizes again. This book proves that a small house of 2500 square feet or less can live big. My 1900 sq foot house is small? It is according to this book. The ridiculous assumption of a small house being anything less than 2000k sq feet aside the book is interesting, has some great ideas, photographed nicely, and worth picking up if you are interested in making small spaces look bigger thru organization, furniture placement, color, and lighting. Of course we'd like more space but this is our first home so we must make do with our 4 br. 2 1/2 bath 'small' home. This book will help us do just that. Fun and surprising This book is as helpful as I would expect from a name like Better Homes and Gardens, but it has some surprises too because it includes a wide range of homes, from the expected to the unexpected. It got my attention right away because it opens with an ocean-view home built on a kind of traffic island between three streets in California. There are cool '50s ranches as well as more common modern-day houses and lots of info on making spaces feel bigger and work harder. Don't waste your money! The majority of the photos are of cluttered, out of style room designs and decorating. Disappointing. 2500 square feet a small house?! Who are you kidding?! ...I have now (4-11-2) looked at the book and ordered it online at (sorry Amazon; I recommend selecting a bookseller...which generates a cost comparison list, including shipping (very important when ordering online), in which Amazon rated 10th out of 53 listed; the first two listed were sold out), based on my impression that, although the book covers houses up to 2750 square feet, it seems to have a significant number of worthwhile ideas that are also shown to enhance houses as small as 640 sf and 520 sf. Even I have to admit that's small! I even nudged my rating up one point. (Original review follows) I have not read or even looked at this book (hence the 3 stars benefit of the doubt), though I will soon. Nonetheless, as an architect, I can assure you that any book based on the presumption of 2500SF as a threshhold for a small house, however worthy it's suggestions, has a preposterous basis. Who is the author (or is it the publisher) kidding? A legitimately small house is certainly less than 1500SF, and probably less than 1200SF or 1000SF. Maybe 2500SF would be tight for the fellow who wrote Cheaper By The Dozen or people who frequently entertain groups of a dozen, but otherwise, who are we kidding? How difficult can it be to "shoehorn" into 2500SF? Make some serious choices, people. Good Grief (thank you, Charlie Brown), most houses SHOULD be less than 2500SF - way less... See also:
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