Solving the Space Crunch

It’s a common problem for remodelers: Clients have grand ideas but limited budgets and space. Rather than walk away from such projects, though, remodelers and builders can refer these customers to a new book, Creating the Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka.

A follow-up to Susanka’s 1998 best-seller The Not So Big House, the new book features 25 houses that make the most of limited space through clever use of architectural features such as built-in bookcases, varied ceiling heights and window seats. Five of the 25 featured homes are remodeling projects, including a conversion of a 500-sq.-ft. summer cottage into a comfortable year-round home for a family of four.

Susanka believes the coming decade will bring increasing consumer demand for sustainable techniques and materials used to build a different kind of home. “People are eager for an alternative to the bigger-is-better approach to home design,” Susanka says in the book’s introduction. “What we need are designs of quality, substance and beauty [to] really nurture the spirit rather than simply impress the neighbors with scale.”

The book is published by Taunton Press Inc., Newtown, Conn. Order now.