"The Not So Big House," Sarah Susanka, 1998

The subtitle is, “A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live,” and that is key to understanding the focus of this book.  At the time Not So Big House was first published, Susanka was a principal at a major architectural firm, and the book explores her ideas about how to design (or remodel) homes so they are comfortable, practical, and, most of all, so that they “work” for those who dwell within them.  

I first encountered this book perhaps a dozen years ago, around the time we moved into what we intended to be our “last house.”  While that home was comfortable and (mostly) worked for us, it was larger than it needed to be.  Over time, we realized the house and property required too much maintenance for us to handle on our own, and we ended up selling it to people with the means necessary to hire a caretaker.  Lesson learned, albeit in a costly way.

When an old friend decided to build his “dream home,” I dug out this book.  He had already chosen an architect and was pleased with the design, but I decided to reread the book from cover to cover.  Happily, Not So Big House felt as fresh and relevant today as it did when I first encountered it.

I’ve found that books on architecture and home design for the homeowner are heavily weighted toward lovely visuals.  Happily, while Not So Big House does have lots of nice pictures, the real substance of the book is in the text.  I wish I’d read it and understood its lessons all those years ago.

Though the overall theme of the book could be “quality before quantity,” my big takeaway was:

Look very skeptically upon spaces that are unlikely to receive daily use.

Note that, as of this writing, there is a newer version (2008) available.  As always, Your Mileage May Vary.