Creating the Not So Big House: Insights and Ideas for the New American Home

Author(s): Sarah Susanka

Publisher: Taunton; First Edition edition (October 1, 2000)

ISBN: 1561583774

ISBN-13: 978-1561583775

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Sarah Susanka’s first book, The Not So Big House, created a movement that is changing the way people think about the American home. That groundbreaking book proposed a new blueprint for the American home: a house that values quality over quantity, with an emphasis on comfort and beauty, a high level of detail and a floor plan designed for today’s informal lifestyle.

Creating the Not So Big House is this blueprint in action. Focusing on key design strategies such as visual weight, layering and framed openings, Sarah Susanka takes an up-close look at 25 houses designed according to Not So Big principles. The houses are from all over North America in a rich variety of styles — from a tiny New York apartment to a southwestern adobe, a traditional Minnesota farmhouse to a cottage community in the Pacific Northwest. The description of each house is accompanied by a floor plan and several beautiful color photographs by Grey Crawford. Informative sidebars sprinkled throughout the book show how specific house features and clever design details illustrate “Not So Big” principles. Whether new or remodeled, these one-of-a-kind homes provide all the inspiration you need to create your own Not So Big House.

As an advocate of “less is more” in residential architecture and interior design, Sarah Susanka has emerged as one of America’s favorite home architects. As a result of the success of the Not So Big House and the new vision it holds for the American home, she was featured by U.S. News and World Report as one of 18 innovators in American culture. Susanka has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, the Charlie Rose Show, and numerous radio programs around the country. She is a former principal and founding partner of the firm chosen by LIFE magazine to design its 1999 dream home. Plans are available for all the houses featured in Creating the Not So Big House.

258 pages, 2000

“Sarah Susanka shows how to downsize the dream house without diminishing the dream.” –Washington Post

“Sarah Susanka offers us a more hopeful strategy for sustaining human development–just make life richer, not bigger….Improve your life and everyone else’s. Use the ideas in this book–not more square feet!” –William McDonough, FAIA, architect, educator, and winner of the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development

“In The Not So Big House, Sarah Susanka offered so much sound advice for those seeking comfort and beauty with a sense of proportion. Now, she has a new book with additional solutions to that all-important question–how do we want to live?” –Barbara Mayer, author of In The Arts and Crafts Style

“Susanka’s book, Creating the Not So Big House, shows how space can be small but beautiful and visually expansive….She has tapped into those principles that Frank Lloyd Wright used in his ‘Usonian’ Houses and has presented them in a very clear and beautifully illustrated format.” –Eric Lloyd Wright, architect

Natural Interiors: Using Natural Materials and Methods to Decorate Your Home

Author(s): Ali Hanan and Pip Norris

Paperback: 160 pages

Publisher: Rizzoli Universe Promotional Books (September 20, 2003)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0789310368

ISBN-13: 978-0789310361

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Pure untouched and stylish, this is the blueprint for natural decorating. Natural Interiors explores the ever-increasing range of natural products and methods — from the raw materials to how they are integrated into your home, without losing comfort, efficiency or functionality. It explains the advantages of ecofriendly options over the mass produced, the artificial and the processed, and delights in their unique and nurturing qualities.

Natural materials are not only visually appealing, they can also contribute to our physical and emotional well-being. Not only are they less damaging to the environment as a whole, natural materials can counter the pollutants and irritants in our home — good for our health and good for our souls.

Natural Interiors looks at the elements of nature that we can bring into our homes — earth, water, fire, air, space, color and light. It then discusses raw materials, such as wood and stone, and how to choose walls, floors, furniture and lighting. It concludes with a section on room design.

The ideas in Natural Interiors is abundantly illustrated with 180 color photographs. By creating natural and inviting spaces, Natural Interiors evokes a style of living that is gentle, aesthetic and balanced.

The Green Kitchen Handbook: Practical Advice, References, & Sources for Transforming the Center of Your Home into a Healthy, Livable Place

Author(s): Annie Berthold-Bond, Mothers for a Livable Planet, Meryl Streep

Publisher: HarperCollins (paper)

ISBN: 0060951869

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The Green Kitchen Handbook: Practical Advice, References, and Sources for Transforming the Center of Your Home into a Healthy, Livable Place

Paperback, 304 pages
Publication date: March 1997

From Booklist , 03/15/97:
Berthold-Bond’s practical guide answers dozens of questions environmentally conscientious and curious cooks have wondered about for years, such as the geographic origin of common healthful foods, their processing or production, and what makes them healthful or not. High points are the detailed discussion of oils and their uses, fatty acid profiles, and smoke points; the microbiology and biochemistry of food preservation in lay language, along with step-by-step procedures for freezing, drying, canning, and preparing a root cellar; a survey of organic agriculture and its standards; and suggestions on how to reduce food packaging and its attendant toxins and nonbiodegradable waste. The last section covers nonfood issues, including household hazardous waste, alternative and safe cleaning supplies and pest control, water purity and conservation, energy-saving appliances, and equipment choices. Well formatted for easy reference, this handbook offers numerous charts of equivalencies, substitutions, and cooking times and concludes with a resource list and an index. Copyright© 1997, American Library Association. All rights reserved

Synopsis:
Featuring everything from lessons on reading labels on packaged foods to buying organic, from canning and community gardening to creating a root cellar, this unique handbook offers suggestions for economical and environmentally conscious alternatives which make keeping a green kitchen a viable, practical option.

Card catalog description
Maintaining an ecologically sound kitchen makes cooking and eating more enjoyable and contributes to the well-being of the environment and your health and family. The Green Kitchen Handbook offers a wealth of practical advice, references, and sources for turning your kitchen into a healthful, livable space. It contains simple tips for immediate use: how to buy organic foods as inexpensively and conveniently as supermarket foods, how to clean and control pests with nontoxic materials, what to look for on food labels, and how to reduce packaging. It also offers advice for more ambitious solutions, including information on canning, creating a root cellar, foraging, and joining community environmental projects. In addition, there are valuable insights on how to buy seasonal, fresh, local foods; how to avoid processed foods and refined sugars; how to recognize the hidden costs in commercial packaging; the best way to prepare and store foods; and how to embrace the new green diet without wasting time and money.

From the Publisher:
The Green Kitchen Handbook contains basic tips on and simple solutions to: what to look for on packaged food labels, how to recognize which food additives to avoid, and how to buy organic foods as inexpensively and conveniently as supermarket foods. And it offers advice for more ambitious projects including information on canning, creating root cellars, buying kitchen appliances, and joining community gardens. The Green Kitchen Handbook also includes valuable insights on how to buy local foods in season; how to avoid excess fat, sugars, and salt; where to locate the best food sources; preparing and storing foods; and integrating the principles of keeping a green kitchen with your daily routine. This unique handbook offers economical and environmentally conscious alternatives that make keeping a green kitchen simple, sensible, and delicious.

Table of Contents
Foreword By Meryl Streep
Preface By Wendy Gordon
1. Introduction
2. The New Green Diet
Step 1. Eating Organically Produced Food
Step 2 and 3. Eating Local, Seasonal Food
Step 4. Eating a Variety of Foods
Step 5. Eating Low on the Food Chain
Step 6. Eating Whole Foods with Adequate Fiber
Step 7. Avoiding Processed Food
Step 8. Reducing Packaging for Public Health and the Environment
3. The New Foragers: New Ways to Shop and Acquire Whole Food
Conventional Stores
Alternative Ways of Finding Whole Foods
Food Packaging
4. The Green Pantry
Grains and Flours
Dried Beans and Peas
Nuts and Seeds
Herbs and Spices
Teas
Whole Food Sweeteners
Healthful Oils
5. Preserving the Foods of the Harvest
The Secrets of Food Preservation
Freezing Food
Drying Food
Root Cellars
Canning Food
6. The Ecological Kitchen
Under the Kitchen Sink: Household Hazardous Waste
Cleaning
Pest Control
Water
Energy Use in the Kitchen
Equipping the Green Kitchen
Dealing with Garbage
Appendix. Nutritional Data
Resources
Index

Making the Most of Small Spaces

Author(s): Anoop Parikh

Publisher: Rizzoli Intl Pubns

ISBN: 0847818012

ISBN-13: 978-0847818013

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Available in Hardcover and paperback
Publication date: June 1994

Synopsis:
Designed for city dwellers and young people for whom small living spaces are the only practical answer to high real estate and rental costs, this book is filled with timely, state-of-the-art ideas for saving space as well as making the most of available apace. 90 color illustrations.

Here is much-needed information on how to use space efficiently in studio apartments and in every room of the full-size home. State-of-the-art kitchen equipmaent and storage solutions, ingenious space-saving ideas, and tips on using color, pattern, texture, and concealed and mirrored elements help make small spaces biggeron a sensible budget.

Customer Comments

from Columbus,Ohio , 11/25/97, rating=10:
Great single source book for apartment/loft living The book contains alot of doable ideas for making a small apartment or studio into real living. It gives a simple breakdown of the basic elements to utilizing whatever size space you have. There are also other books in the Making the Most of… series. They all seem well thought out.

The Cottage Book

Author(s): Richard Sexton

Publisher: Chronicle Books

ISBN: 0877015139

ISBN-13: 978-0877015130

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Richard Sexton, who himself lives in a small hillside cottage overlooking the city by the bay, has translated his passion for these quaint, rustic, and informal dwellings into a volume of captivating color images. You can live the cottage life vicariously through Sexton; his photographs have an almost three-dimensional feel that gives you the sense of being there. Picturing yourself having lunch on the deck of a houseboat shown in these pages is a breeze, for he is a master of lighting and mood.

Customer Comments

A reader from Trenton, New Jersey , 04/13/98, rating=9:
A mini-vacation between two hard covers. An informative, enjoyable, aesthetically pleasing book about the cottages and cottage styles of San Francisco. The first chapter tells the story of how San Francisco cottages developed, and then specific cottages are showcased. Many views are of the exteriors, but some include interior photos with the homeowners’ stories and quotes. Many individual cottages and styles are shown, providing variety and a feast for the eye. This book is a great get-away when you can’t actually get away, and leads to very pleasant daydreaming. –This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title.

The Natural House Book: Creating a Healthy, Harmonious, and Ecologically-Sound Home Environment

Cover, The Natural House Book : Creating a Healthy, Harmonious, and Ecologically-Sound Home Environment Author(s): David Pearson, Malcolm Wells

Publisher: Fireside

ISBN: 0671666355

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The Natural House Book: Creating a Healthy, Harmonious, and Ecologically-Sound Home Environment

Paperback, 287 pages
Publication date: October 1989

Synopsis:
Here is the first guide to redecorating any house or apartment to create a sanctuary that enhances physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. 105 four-color photographs. 10 four-color charts. 80 one-color illustrations.

Booknews, Inc., 02/01/90:
Numerous illustrations and informative text give decorating and designing guidance. A thorough, useful work at a low price. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Less Is More: A Practical Guide for Maximizing the Space in Your Home

Author(s): Elaine Lewis, Judith Davidsen

Publisher: Penguin Studio

ISBN: 0670842397

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Less Is More: A Practical Guide to Maximizing the Space in Your Home

Hardcover, 225 pages

he photographs in this work are beautiful, as are the spaces. The use of color, lighting, furniture arrangement, mirrors, and built-ins are a few of the creative ways interior decorator Lewis offers to give the illusion of more space. While she suggests that space problems are not only caused by tiny rooms, her choice not to include dimensions is a serious flaw. Also lacking are ideas for those most space-concious areas: basements and attics. And the ideas are largely focused on apartment living. Still, excellent specific tips can be found?such as refacing cabinets rather than remodeling a kitchen?and, though they are not necessarily “on the cheap” ideas, many of the rooms can be redone with strict budgets in mind. A handy list of manufacturers and retailers nationwide is provided. A good choice for general decorating collections.?Corinne Nelson, “Library Journal”

Product Description

Organized by room, with at least ten examples for each type of room, a celebrated designer offers a guide to finding more space in any house or apartment, including fool-the-eye tips, space planning tricks, and ingenious arrangements.

Audubon House – Building the Environmentally Responsible, Energy-Efficient Office

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

ISBN: 0471024961

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Synopsis:
The behind-the-scenes story of the construction of one of the world’s most environmentally sound buildings in the heart of New York City–the headquarters of the Audubon Society. Audubon and the Croxton architects sought to make Audubon House a model for design professionals around the world.

Card catalog description
Audubon House is the inspiring story of how the Audubon/Croxton team converted a 19th-century architectural masterpiece into one of the most environmentally advanced buildings ever designed. Providing a model that can be followed by owners, developers, architects, and building professionals, this book demonstrates how environmental criteria, such as sustainable use of resources, energy efficiency, and air quality can be achieved without sacrificing traditional considerations of cost, functionality, and aesthetics. Built at market cost and using only off-the-shelf technology, Audubon House is sixty percent more energy efficient than the conventional approach would have been. It saves its owners a projected $100,000 dollars annually in operating expenses, and supports an extraordinarily practical, healthy, and handsome office environment. The book is organized into two parts. Part I introduces the project and describes what members of the Audubon team discovered about the environmental impact of buildings and the types of systems that can mitigate this impact. Part II presents four essential systems at Audubon House: lighting, heating and cooling, ventilation and indoor air quality, and recycling. Particular attention is paid to the way in which these systems work together, each contributing to the performance of the whole. These goals could only be realized through the close cooperation of the architects, interior designers, environmentalists, engineers, research scientists, and contractors who collaborated on the project. The description of this collaborative process is as central to the theme of this book as the building’s many design innovations and energy-saving features. Richly illustrated with professional photographs and architectural drawings, Audubon House is both a guidepost for environmentally sound construction and an inspiring chronicle of hope for all environmentally concerned citizens.

The publisher, John Wiley & Sons:
In 1992, the National Audubon Society completed construction on one of the most environmentally advanced edifices ever built. The building’s success is due equally to the new technologies implemented, sound economic principles used to guide the project and the special collaborative approach of the design and construction team. This lavishly illustrated book examines all three elements in a manner that will show others how these principles can be applied to create buildings with improved environmental performance.

Table of Contents

TOWARD A SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE
The Built Environment: Counting the Costs
Dimensions of Sustainable Design

INSIDE AUDUBON HOUSE
Lighting and Other Energy Efficiencies
Heating, Cooling, and Energy at Audubon
The Healthy Workplace: Ventilation and Materials
Recycling at Audubon: Closing the Loop
Conclusion: A Success in the Making
Appendices
Index.

The Natural House Catalog : Everything You Need to Create an Environmentally Friendly Home

The Natural House Catalog
Author(s): David Pearson (Editor)

Publisher: Fireside

ISBN: 0684801981

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Synopsis:
Featuring specific how-to projects written by specialists, as well as an index organized by city and region, this book is a natural for home builders, renovators, decorators, and fixer-uppers who cherish the environment now–and want to preserve it for future generations. 91 photos, 16 in color.

Table of Contents
Pt. 1. Everything you need
Ch. 1. Building
Ch. 2. Soft Energy
Ch. 3. Water
Ch. 4. Sane Electrics
Ch. 5. Lighting
Ch. 6. Air
Ch. 7. Decoration
Ch. 8. Furniture and Furnishings
Ch. 9. Non-Toxic Home
Ch. 10. Backyard
Ch. 11. Recycling
Ch. 12. Green Experts
Pt. 2. Directory of Products, Resources and Services
Index

Creating Sacred Space With Feng Shui

Author(s): Karen Kingston

Publisher: Broadway Books

ISBN: 0553069160

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Creating Sacred Space With Feng Shui : Learn the Art of Space Clearing and Bring New Energy into Your Life

Paperback, 272 pages
Publication date: February 1997

Synopsis:
The ancient oriental art of feng shui teaches that the buildings one occupies affects personal physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. This easy-to-understand, illustrated guide shows how to apply the art of space clearing and other principles of feng shui to create inner peace and comfort in the home and workplace.

From the Publisher :
Feng Shui is the ancient oriental art of enhancing and harmonizing the flowof energy in your surroundings. Over the last twenty years, Karen Kingston haspioneered the study of a specialized branch of Feng Shui called Space Clearing.In this fascinating and easy-to-follow guide she shows how you can use Space Clearing and other principles of Feng Shui to enhance the flow of energy inyour home or workplace and so create happiness and abundance in every area ofyour life.

You will learn how to:

* Clear “stuck” energy and create sacred space
* Consecrate your home
* Create a clutter-free environment and simplify your life
* Safeguard yourself against electromagnetic and geopathic stress
* Place furniture, mirrors, wind chimes, and other Feng Shui enhancements to create balance and harmony

Karen Kingston divides her time between London and Bali, Indonesia. She blendsthe results of her studies with Balinese priests and shamans together with FengShui wisdom and ancient knowledge from other cultures into a program thatreally works. Karen leads workshops around the world and is in great demandfor both business and private consultations.

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Product Description

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