Inside the Not So Big House : Discovering the Details that Bring a Home to Life

Best-selling author of The Not So Big House Sarah Susanka teams up with architectural design writer Marc Vassallo to expand upon the message that has resonated with over a million homeowners and builders across the country: opting for personalized, well-crafted, thoughtfully designed spaces over superfluous square footage results in a home that comforts and nourishes those who live there. Susanka and Vassallo focus their lens on the tangible and sometimes intangible details that bring an otherwise ordinary home to life. Incorporating such details as dropped ceilings, built-in shelves, pocket doors, window seats, and well-placed alcoves infuses a home with the character of its owners and conveys a uniqueness that's mising in many homes built or remodeled today. From Rhode Island to San Diego, the 23 homes featured here illustrate exceptional attention to detail. Each offers inspiration for those building or remodeling to transform their home into an expression of all that is important to them.

Sarah Susanka is one of the leading residential architects in the United States. Her first book, The Not So Big House, topped best-seller charts in Home & Garden categories across the country in its first year of publication. To date, over 500,000 copies have been sold. As a result of her first book and the new vision it holds for the American home, she was featured by US 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 NPR’s Diane Rehm Show, as well as on numerous radio shows around the country. She is a former principal and founding partner of Mulfinger, Susanka, Mahady & Partners, Inc., the firm chosen by LIFE magazine to design its 1999 Dream Home.
Marc Vassallo received a degree in architecture from Cornell University, interned at a small architectural office in Colorado, and designed and built his own energy-conserving house in Virginia before turning his attention fully to words. He has since published numerous magazine features and short stories, and was awarded an NEA fellowship for his fiction. During eight years with The Taunton Press, Vassallo served as a magazine story editor and chief editor, and as the company’s editorial director. Vassallo lives with his wife, Linda, and son, Nicky, in New Haven, Connecticut, where he writes frequently about home design and is also at work on a novel and a collection of stories. His second book with The Taunton Press, The Barefoot Home, published in September, 2006