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A Little House of My Own: 47 Grand Designs for 47 Tiny Houses

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Manufacturer: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers

List Price: $24.95
Our Price: $16.47
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Average Customer Ratings:

The charming and innovative architecture of these tiny cottages, studios, fishing huts, homes and more--so small and cute that you can't help but fall for them--will inspire and delight home and architecture lovers and dreamers, too. Each chapter captures the utter eccentricity of these ingeniously designed shelters with irresistible color photographs of the structure and interiors alongside detailed isometric drawings, floor plans, and multiple elevations. A Little House of My Own offers humble dreams of solitude, romance, oasis for meditation and whimsy--all under 325 square feet--as well as technical details of the structure from the building materials and woodworking techniques to estimated cost of construction. In the accompanying text, award-winning architect Lester Walker relates the story of each building, the community or setting where it is located, and the personalities that shaped it. Notably quaint homes from history, including Jefferson's Honeymoon Cottage, Henry Thoreau's Cabin, and George Bernard Shaw's Writing Hut, and features on wacky specialty houses are sure to inspire and delight.


PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS:

Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 728.37022273
EAN: 9781579121518
ISBN: 1579121519
Label: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers
Manufacturer: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: 2000-10-02
Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers
Studio: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers


SIMILAR ITEMS:

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CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Whimsical and practical -
A fun and functional presentation of very small dwellings - all unique. Some practical living spaces for thrifty, eco-conscious builders, some just plain genious spacial designs. All are meticulously illustrated - a great idea book!

Great ideas in a nice sized book -
Though I do not recommend the authors book :"The Tiny House Book", this book is great! Great photographs and drawn pictures that detail the building being written about. More of an idea book for the home handy person than a detailed instruction book, it contains enough information to easily build a number of the buildings illustrated. This book focuses on very small buildings most under 600 sq ft but the ideas presented could be used to build any sized home or out building.

Looks Good...But -
The quality of the book's construction, layout, pictures, and organization is veyr nice. This definetly makes a nice book for reading in a doctor's office.

The author clearly states that the book provides little in the way of specific construction methods for small homes or floor plans. The floor plans could have been at least double the size that they are. There is too much white space on the pages with the floor plans. I almost needed a magnifying glass to read the notes on the floor plans.

There are lots of pictures from the outside of the homes - perhaps drive-by pictures. There are very little pictures on the inside of the homes. The efficient use of less space could have been better addressed with pictures and sketches.

The bottom line: If you want a nice looking book with an interesting topic, buy it. If you want substance, look somewhere else.

a delightful little book -
I came across this book after reading Michael Pollan's excellent _A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder_, in which it is mentioned that the Lester Walker book _Tiny Tiny Houses_ had helped inspire Pollan to build his own little writing cabin. This book, _A Little House of My Own_, is effectively an update and expansion of _Tiny Tiny Houses_. (At the time of this writing, Amazon has paired the two Lester Walker books for its "buy this book with ..." feature; don't be fooled into buying both books!)

I quite enjoyed _A Little House of My Own_, and am a bit surprised at the number of reviewers here who were disappointed by it. My best guess is that they were expecting something other than what they got, and they didn't see beyond that to what the book does have to offer: it is a fascinating study of simplicity in architectural design, and presents a refreshing counterpoint to the current trend of constructing soulless McMansions. The book's history of very small houses and workspaces, illustrated by forty-seven different examples, is a welcome reminder that people can live well in much less space than so many of us are now accustomed to.

While this book contains drawings and floorplans to accompany its photographs, the material given is not enough on its own to use as a guide for construction. Walker states in his introduction that the beginning builder who wants to try putting up a small cabin like one of the ones presented should "read one or two of the basic housebuilding books listed in the Bibliography and then become very friendly with a local housebuilder." The intention is not to provide templates for construction, but to help get people thinking about the space they occupy, how to use it best, and ideally to inspire them to design and build a place to call their own.

As a city dweller renting my apartment, I'm not going to be doing any construction work anytime soon. But I would like to, one day, and if I do, I will definitely want to have this book on hand as a reference. The combination of history and technical information presented here is unusual and eye-opening.

I don't think so. -
These houses would be interesting to live in, if you don't mind living in houses WITHOUT BATHROOMS! Nice houses to look at, and one or two might be nice to build (two out of the whole 48 could be liveable as a weekend getaway), but if you're looking to buy a housebuilding book to actually build a house, look the other way. Les Walker must be running out of ideas because it's just a reprint of his first book. I doubt HE lives in a 250 square foot house with no bathroom and an igloo cooler for a refrigerator. C'MON LES, SNAP OUT OF IT!!!!!!!!!!!

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