Most of us have noticed the trend: new subdivisions filled with McMansions pumped up on steroids, neighbors who demolished their cottage and replaced it with a mini-castle, the friend of a friend's childless brother who just added on a third bedroom. Many of us have suffered the consequences of an inflated mortgage, an unmanageable construction project, or a house simply too large to keep clean. Will our dream home always be a celebration of excess, and a drain on our lives?
Some wise people buck the trend. They build, remodel, redecorate, or just rethink their needs--prudently and calmly constructing a joyful, sane life around themselves. They think, sometimes literally, outside the box, and they live close, warm, and simple, applying spiritual and social solutions to their material desires. Pockets of people all over the continent are realizing the benefits of scaling down. They are designing a new dream, one that reunites extended families, makes space for friends, and emphasizes home life over home maintenance.
Little House on a Small Planet is a guidebook to this movement, and an invitation to join. Author Shay Salomon offers fourteen basic principles for the design and habitation of efficient, high-density homes. These fourteen principles outline the invisible supports of a happy home, set within the context of a future, more caring society. With floor plans, photographs, advice, and anecdotes, Little House on a Small Planet asks and answers, "What fills a home when the excess is cut away, and how do we get there from here?"

Easy-to-follow shed designs with loads of color examples.

The new edition of this classic do-it-yourself guide for backyard builders now contains more material and photographs than ever.

Sheds helps the do-it-yourself builder think through all the issues involved in designing and building a shed: intended use, size, cost, placement, degree of construction difficulty, and much more. Following a chapter on construction basics, the authors preview each step of building a beautiful and useful shed -- from foundation to cupola, and everything in between.

Sheds contains:

• Material lists
• Cost estimates
• Step-by-step illustrations
• New tips and hints
• Detailed instructions
• Schedules
• 16 pages of color.

Packed with detailed illustrations, plans and commonsense advice, this new edition of the classic book on building a shed is like having a professional carpenter beside you, making the project easy to control and successful.

How do you maximize living space in increasingly small and expensive apartments that are being built in cities around the country? This stunningly illustrated book reveals how renowned architects -- including Stephen Alton, SA Architects, David Hotson Architects, and Gary Schoemaker Architects -- have solved that problem in their designs for small apartments and lofts in New York, San Fransisco, Boston, and other major US cities where residential square footage is at a premium.

These design solutions focus on innovative, multifunctional uses within small spaces: a dining area by night, an office by day; living rooms that morph into party spaces or media rooms; and free-standing closets that conceal everything from kitchens, to beds, to work stations. The projects exhibit excellence in design, along with innovative use of materials and construction methods. Each case study includes interior and exterior photography by some of the finest architectural photographers working today, accompanied by design drawings that include site plans, details, and floor plans.

Cape Cod homes are a perennial favorite among small and growing families, and they can often benefit from being brought up-to-date. Capes is a combination of practical, attractive designs and proven ideas that include a wealth of style, size, and budget choices for renovating, remodeling, or building a Cape Cod-style home. Featuring over 20 case studies of updated homes and Capes built from scratch, the book is generously illustrated with inspiring original color photographs and before-and-after floor plans.

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 the 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, and a cottage community in the Pacific Northwest. Whether new or remodeled, these one-of-a-kind homes provide all the inspiration you need to create your own Not So Big House.

This collection of beautiful photographs showcases the artistry of those who sculpt outdoor living environments with solid rock, impressed and tinted concrete, and brick in many forms. You will be both inspired and informed. This practical guidebook will help you choose a patio style suitable for your home, learn to speak your contractor's language, pick a plan that fits your budget and style, furnish and organize outdoor areas for entertaining or intimate family dining, create containers and border areas for dynamic gardens and landscaping displays, and develop outdoor sanctuaries with artfully placed planter boxes, shrubs, and privacy screens. There are also step-by-step instructions for the successful installation of your own paver patio