Average customer rating:
- A most excellent book
- Residential Lighting - A Practical Guide
- Excellent Resource
- Lighting secrets revealed!
- A lighting technique that works!
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Residential Lighting: A Practical Guide
Randall Whitehead
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0471450553 |
Book Description
Residential Lighting is the complete guide to illuminating single-family homes.
- Examines the "how" behind the art of residential lighting.
- Emphasizes use of "light layering"-using variety of lighting sources together.
- Features more illustrations, room-based design strategies, common lighting mistakes, and a larger color section.
Customer Reviews:
A most excellent book.......2007-08-25
Well detailed, provides basic info about lamp types, color, and specific information/suggestions for each room, even outdoors/landscape lighting. A bit pricey, but still worth it. Read it cover to cover.
Residential Lighting - A Practical Guide.......2006-03-03
This is an excellent practical and technical book for learning about and designing lighting for a home. It's aimed at the professional, which I appreciate as an intern architect. Part of my job is to design sophisticated lighting schemes for custom homes, which takes a lot of experience and knowledge. This book has really helped me to pinpoint the different kinds of lighting needed for each space and how to place it and specify it in a professional way for the greatest effect. Most architects take years to learn this, but I'm getting a crash course by having this resource. It's not a fluffy coffee table book, it's a technical manual that teaches HOW to properly understand and design lighting for a residence. I highly recommend it.
Excellent Resource.......2006-02-25
This is the best book that I have seen on the topic. The practical advice is well balanced with technical information. A must-have for any Designer's Resouce Library.
Lighting secrets revealed!.......2005-11-29
As a designer, I can't say enough good things about Randall Whitehead's Residential Lighting, A Practical Guide. This is his follow up to his wonderful Lighting Up! A Practical Guide which has been a staple of the design community for seven years. All the best parts of the earlier book have been retained with the addition of more than 200 photos in both color and black & white.
The chapters have really been packed with up-to-the-minute information about many of the new technologies that are now becoming the norm, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs). There are also a whole new series of enlightening sections in the back of the book with great tips on how to run a design business, how to get published and how to deal with clients.
Randall's way of writing is very entertaining and I feel it has revitalized the often dry category of textbooks. His funny, casual method of doling out information really helps make this book a pleasure to read. His energy and humor is infectious as he lets readers in on the secrets and practices of good lighting for homes and gardens. What also sets this book apart from other texts on lighting is how he approaches the subject first from the aesthetic side then gradually lets the reader in on the technical reasons how lighting design works.
This is an inspirational reference guide for all aspiring designers... as well as for established design professionals like me. Even savvy homeowners will latch onto this book as the insider's guide to the secrets of great lighting.
A lighting technique that works!.......2005-04-22
I've read a few other lighting books over the years but found that Whitehead's approach is superior for creating moods in rooms. My wife and I prototype interiors in our home and the results from "A Practical Guide" have been outstanding. We move and change the lighting with temporary luminaires and various wattages to explore the various possibilities before using them in real designs for clients.
Beware - after buying into his concepts you will be frustrated by the lighting almost everywhere you go.
- jim
Book Description
For everyone who craves a simpler lifestyle, not only in how they live but also where they live, The Simple Home features 21 houses and presents six different approaches to creating a home that realizes its full potential both simply and elegantly.
We are living in complex times, in a commodified, virtual, and overstimulated culture. One response to high levels of complexity and overstimulation is to look for yet another gadget or closet organizer to simplify our lives. But the answer lies somewhere else. The road to a simpler more satisfying life begins with a clear-eyed examination of the choices we are making for our time--and that includes choices about where we want to live.
The Simple Home presents six paths to simplicity, each illustrated by human-scaled, unadorned homes with straightforward floor plans and forms. These are open, light-filled homes (with rooms or spaces that are often multipurpose) that express their beauty in their utility and practicality. Simple homes are low maintenance and often green, designed for homeowners who wish to embody a different set of values in their housing choices than the run-of-the-mill starter castles littering the landscape.
The 6 Paths to Simplicity:
1. Simple is Enough
2. Simple is Thrifty
3. Simple is Flexible
4. Simple is Timeless
5. Simple is Sustainable
6. Simple is Refined
Customer Reviews:
Houses that live large for their owners.......2007-08-17
Wonderful case studies about 20 homes with good explanations about material choices, site considerations, and the people who own them. It's a Taunton Press book, so the photos are great, of course. I especially like the floor plan illustrations that support the photos and give a sense of flow through the houses.
Eye-opening book.......2007-08-04
This book is amazing! The pictures are great, and so well coordinated with the text that the reader can truly "see" each house. For anyone dreaming of a second home, or a more efficient first home, this is an ideal volume.
Defines the concept of a 'simple home' .......2007-07-08
Sarah Nettleton's THE SIMPLE HOME: THE LUXURY OF ENOUGH defines the concept of a 'simple home' and offers interior design tips to achieving satisfaction from a basic home design. This involves eliminating non-essentials and practicing restraint: six avenues to achieving a 'greener' lifestyle from this approach blends full-page color photos with comments on designs which refine and simplify the home - perfect for new students of interior design and homeowners contemplating reconstruction.
Great Book!.......2007-05-14
Wonderful pictures! This book has so many great stories of the home and how people really make their houses simple and comfortable.
Hmmm?.......2007-05-12
My copy came with many scratches on the dust cover and a broken binding when I opened the book. As far as the contents...I was expecting more of a layman friendly simple life-style type approach. Instead I felt like I was buying a book a self-contractor could use. My perusal indicated more about architecture as opposed to simplifying home content. Not a happy camper with this book. I returned it.
Book Description
Green. It conjures images of a meadow in spring for some, and the color of money for others. What does "green" have to do with our homes? In essence, green building-or sustainable building-means being smart about how we use energy, water, and building materials so that we can live well without needlessly damaging the environment. Creating a good green home isn't just about conservation, about using less or saving more-although that's certainly part of it. It's about creating better homes that are easier on the environment, less expensive over the long term, and more delightful to come home to. That's the message Jennifer Roberts wants to share in Good Green Homes, the ultimate new guide for people who want to live in comfortable, healthy, environmentally conscious homes. With some simple steps outlined in this book, you can save money, and do your part to help save the environment. For instance, using an energy-efficient light bulb saves you money. It also results in less demand for electricity, which in turn results in less pollution from power plants, which may help a child with asthma breathe a little easier. If you associate green-built housing with the unconventional or the quirky-tree houses, geodesic domes, dwellings constructed of tires or soda bottles-think again. Perfect for homeowners, remodelers, renters (who might be surprised by how much is within their power to change), architects, builders, and interior designers, this book lays out seven fundamental principles of green building, illustrated with more than 150 color and 20 black and white photographs of more than twenty-five homes. Jennifer Roberts launched two retail stores in San Francisco specializing in environmentally sensible consumer products, including household goods; and is a freelance writer and editor on topics that include energy-efficient building design and systems.
Customer Reviews:
A good start..........2007-01-18
This is an excellent book for those seeking an introduction to environmentally sound home building. There are many good general points and examples of green homes. It is short on details for actual designers but good for home builders who need to read this information desperately and stop building mega-mansions with 5 bedrooms for families with one kid.
Good book.......2006-07-12
Doesn't give a detailed analysis of anything, but is a great tool for people wanting a basic understanding of green building, energy efficient techniques, etc.
Beautiful, but...........2004-10-29
This book no doubt makes a lovely addition to my coffee table. I feel so inspired and now.. how do I do it?? I was looking for more practical advice that addressed all my reasons for wanting to remodel green - protecting my family's health and our planet's natural resources and my financial savings. If the intention was to create a stunning, inspiring book - great job. If it was to really explain what green is and exactly how to do it, I think I'd look to books like "Green Remodeling" by Johnston and Master or read Environmental Building News....
Real Homes that Make a Difference.......2004-03-03
"A recent poll revealed that an astounding 96% of consumers are willing to pay more for green features in a home, and 91% feel that energy-efficient features in a new home were extremely or very important."
If you are planning to redecorate or remodel, Good Green Homes offers ideas, real-world advice and lots of inspiration. Jennifer Roberts is a freelance writer who specializes in sustainable building, energy efficiency and corporate social responsibility. She helps people make choices that encourage positive change in their living environments. She answers the following questions:
How does having a "green" home actually save money?
How can someone who rents their home make significant changes?
What are some ways to protect and improve the quality of air inside our homes?
What are "rapidly renewable sources?"
How can you afford a green home on a limited budget?
Jennifer is also a merchandising manager for the Marina Green stores and joys introducing consumers to the joys of stylish clothes made from organically grown cotton, healthy paints, energy-efficient light bulbs, tableware made from recycled materials and environmentally friendly alternatives to everyday household products.
Featured Homes Include:
A Delightful Cottage
An Ecofriendly addition to a historic home
A Trio of Healthy and Green City Homes
An Artist's studio on a Wooded Island
A Vacation Retreat in the Wine Country
A Neighborhood of Homes
A Remodeled Victorian Flat
It is rather shocking to learn that the air inside our homes can be five times more polluted than the air outside. One look at your energy bill might convince you to read this book.
These homes don't really look all that different, but there are features like skylights to save electricity or there is a home that is naturally cooled, heated and lit. Some homes have solar water-heating systems for the summer and a unique solar power system blended right in with a backyard trellis to generate electricity from the sun.
The section on air quality was of interest to me because I am always moving my Austin air filter about the house.
The "Wine Country Retreat" looked like a house I could live in because it even has a tower. Well, the pools also looked rather inviting.
~TheRebeccaReview.com
Best Book of Its Kind!.......2004-01-01
This book is a gift to the Earth and to so many of the people who inhabit it! Good Green Homes is educational and practical in an amazingly palatable way...that is to say, it is most enjoyable reading; and at the end one is so much wiser than when one began. It is a visual feast. The concept of environmentally sensitive choices in every aspect of the home is brought to the whole spectrum of the population, from new construction to renters to "what can I do with what I've got." This book is beautiful, user friendly and, above all, inspirational. I kept saying, "I can do that! I can take that action. I can make a difference, and I want to!" Bravo!
Book Description
There is no "one-size-fits-all" plan for so-called "green" homes; rather, there are universal principles of design that can be applied to individual tastes and needs. Architect Angela Dean offers a variety of ways to incorporate green building into your home, including using healthy building materials such as straw bales and natural flooring, taking advantage of local materials and resources, reusing gray water for landscaping, and incorporating passive solar design. Her goal is to teach people how to think about building sustainable homes. Green by Design provides a thorough analysis of what it means to build green and offers advice on what to consider when designing a sustainable home. Green by Design features full-color photographs and line drawings of floor plans show different examples of successful sustainable homes. It also includes in-depth case studies of more than a dozen homes so readers planning a green home can see what worked for others. By providing people with knowledge, inspiration, and the ability to ask the right questions (and understand the answers) Green by Design puts home builders and owners on a path to creating beautiful, environmentally responsible homes that they can be proud to live in. Angela Dean, AIA, is principal architect of AMD Architecture in Salt Lake City. She specializes in environmentally responsible designs to create healthy, comfortable buildings that are in harmony with the environment
Customer Reviews:
Overview of Living Green.......2007-04-04
This introductory guide to sustainable living will give you new ideas for building your home in an environmentally-friendly way.
Outdated Book.......2007-02-25
I agree with Bill below - this book is outdated. The author seems to miss the concept of ecological footprint. The first two houses she features in her book are 3,300 sq ft (for three people) and 3,000 sq ft (for two people). Another house is 4,175 sq ft.
Even if people use green materials and building practices, the houses aren't green if they're using excessive materials and space.
There are a number of better green books, but one that specifically focuses on minimizing environmental impact is Little House on a Small Planet by Shay Salomon.
A Perfect Primer.......2007-02-03
I am a SoCA tract homeowner getting ready to relocate to the mountains of northern Utah. My husband and I are committed to building a home that is environmentally responsible, but the "green" concept is absolutely overwhelming. Green by Design is a terrific overview of the concept of sustainable living. Through the several case studies we learned that we would not have to be locked into an ugly straw box or uglier geodesic dome, and this book gave us just what we needed for next steps. If you already have expertise in this area and are looking for a how-to, I'm sure there are more appropriate books to help you build your home. However, if you want an introduction, this book does a great job.
Fluff book with no practical advice.......2006-06-28
This book uses a lot of buzz words and offers very little substantial advice when it comes to actually designing your own house. It touches a little on straw bale and reused materials and barely grazes cob/clay/rammed earth. It doesn't even mention geodesic domes as far as I can tell. The book advocates on one page (p.72) that people should live in small humble buildings, only having the square footage they absolutely need. Then a few pages later (p.79) it shows a 4000+ sq. ft. home, with the title "an excersize in efficiency." I fail to see anything efficeint about a 4000 sq. ft. home, especially when it's a standard A-frame building (granted, it's for a family of 6, but then again there's nothing "green" about having 4 children).
It does cover some good stuff like gray-water use, rain collection, alternative heating and cooling, but it glosses over all of this and takes up a lot of space with strange-angled shots of rooms and floor plans. I KNOW the floor plan I want, and there's very little that a floor plan has to do with green building (it's more about orientation to the sun for passive solar use). What I'd prefer to have seen was simple diagrams of how the systems of the house work. There's a spot that explains how one house has the pool hooked up to the AC such that the hot exhaust from the AC heats the pool. Now THAT's something I can get into, but I want more than a couple sentences about it. That deserves a diagram!
This Book is About "Sustainable Living" in Practice not Just Theory.......2006-02-06
My 50's Florida ranch style home is in the design stage for major remodel. In the the first "case study" in Green by Design the owner's took a 50's style one bedroom home in Utah and incorporated the foundation and concrete masonry shell into the new design. Exactly my plan. The author uses 14 green design homes as case studies with wonderfully insightful pictures and just the right text to accompany the pictures and to explain "process", "design", "site", "materials", "space", "energy"- all concepts I can use to make my newly remodeled home a certifiable Florida Green Home.
Building Green is NOT about the latest designs and materials as the previous reviewers would have you believe. It's about designing for "sustainable living". Go to floridagreenbuilding.org to find a 5 page checklist of features required to build a green home in Florida. Nothing will get you more points (other than a small home) in this 5 page checklist than not having a permament irrigation system. In fact not having a swimming pool, not living on a natural body of water and not having an attached garage all count toward living "green" in Florida. If you want an up-to-date and "exhaustive resource" buy the latest edition of the "Greenspec Directory"-$89.00 here on Amazon. However the last 5 pages of this book is a list of resources, including the Greenspec Directory and 5 local green building programs. With Florida's now you have 6.
The ultimate green home is a SMALL HOME! In Florida, a 1000 sq. ft. home will get you 50 points (out of 200 required minimum for certification) and a 2000 and above sq. ft. home will get you 0 points. Over 50% of the case study homes in this book would have recieved extra points if they would have been built in Florida. Which brings me to the regional focus of this book. Most of the homes featured where located in western states ( a few were in the northeast) and normally that would disqualify most books for a Florida resident, but not in this case.
I highly recommend this book if you are serious about designing a home for sustainable living.
Book Description
n A gorgeous full-color showcase of 130 magnificent home designs n Stunning interior and exterior photography displays the elegance and grace of these palatial homes n Opens with an extensive 64-page editorialsection offering information on the latest decorating techniques and the hottest home design trends n This lavish home plan collection is divided into four primary sections that feature Magnificent Master Suites, Opulent Baths, Gourmet Kitchens and Grand Gathering Spaces n Complete construction blueprints are available for every home Within these pages lie the most luxurious home designs, from the best architects and residential designers the nation has to offer. Homes with that special something extra that sets them apart and opens the door to Fine Living .
Book Description
Ethan Allen and HGTV may have plenty to say about making a home look right, but what makes a home feel right? In House Thinking, journalist and cultural critic Winifred Gallagher takes the reader on a psychological tour of the American home. By drawing on the latest research in behavioral science, an overview of cultural history, and interviews with leading architects and designers, she shows us not only how our homes reflect who we are but also how they influence our thoughts, feelings, and actions.
How does your entryway prime you for experiencing your home? What makes a bedroom a sensual oasis? How can your bathroom exacerbate your worst fears? House Thinking addresses provocative questions like these, enabling us to understand the homes we've made for ourselves in a unique and powerful new way. It is an eye-opening look at how we live . . . and how we could live.
Customer Reviews:
A fascinating topic covered in a haphazard fashion.......2007-08-19
I found the basic concept of this book to be fascinating. The author takes on the task of walking us through each room in the traditional American house and analyzing not the furniture and decor, but the life and psychology of each. The result should be a series of insights into how we can design our living spaces to support and even create behaviors that are beneficial to us. And in some cases, this is what we get. But all too often - indeed, for the majority of the book - Gallagher seems to veer off course and talk about the history and sociology associated with each room. While this is an interesting topic in and of itself, the lack of a consistent method from room to room can be both confusing and distracting. As an example, here are the approaches taken for two rooms: For the section on the living room, the author describes the psychology of refuge and prospect in a way that is potentially useful for anyone trying to figure out why their house does not seem to offer them the feeling of comfort and belonging they would like. For the section on the kitchen, we are treated to the historical background of women's literal place in the home, and the way the kitchen has evolved with and contributed to the feminist movement. Both sections are well written and interesting, but only the first supported my goal of learning how to create a comfortable home.
This lack of of focus cripples what could have been both a very readable and very useful book. As it is, while "House Thinking" is still well worth reading, it will not be a book that earns a place of honor in your library. Or your living room. Or bedroom.
Great Concept - Not Well Executed.......2007-04-22
I work with architects & interior designers every day to design commerical space, so I'm familiar with the ideas the author was trying to communicate. The concept of how we live in our homes and how design has evolved in America and throughout the world is fascinating. The author has done a tremendous amount of research. At the end of the book I was left feeling like I'd read a draft of someone's doctoral dissertation, with a lot of editing still to be done. As others have mentioned, the lack of pictures and illustrations is a huge oversight. Even for those of us familiar with design concepts & nomenclature, it is nearly impossible to wade through the descriptions given--I felt like I was being tested to translate her observations into a vision that reconciled to her conclusions. Furthermore, I think the organization of the book, a room-by-room analysis of how design has evolved, although logical in approach--did not mesh well with what the author was trying to communicate. She would often go off on a tangent siting research, trends throughout history and psychological implications that may have applied to the "room" in question, but were often as relevant or irrelevant to any other room, yard or community she might have chosen to elaborate on.
This might be a good book to introduce the evolution of design to someone with little prior knowledge (which is why I'm generous in providing 2 stars); especially at the current bargain prices on Amazon. Otherwise, I'd recommend passing this one by.
Understanding our spaces.......2007-04-06
Enjoyed this book a lot though it is not a "decorating book" in the usual sense. I agree pictures would have been a delightful addition but I can see how it would have increased the costs and size of the book too much to be affordable. I found the insights into how our home spaces have evolved over time, and why we use them the way we do to be very entertaining. This book helps you think about how you use your space, and what feels good and right to you so your choices in decorating, remodeling or purchasing a home can be more deliberate. (You may actually understand why you fell in love with a house, or one room just feels so good, and another so bad!) It is easy to read and so entertaining, I hated to put it down.
One of those "duh!" books...........2007-02-07
This is a really neat, unusual book in that it goes room by room through American homes and talks about what those rooms mean to us culturally and how their cultural meaning has evolved over time. It's a lot of fun if you have an interest in design, architecture or social/cultural history. A lot of what she said or pointed out had me hitting myself on the forehead and saying, "Duh! Of course it's that way for a reason." I really enjoyed the experience of reading this book and enjoy having names for concepts I veguely already had.
Great text in dire need of illustrations.......2007-01-08
A well-researched book on the psychology of our living spaces, with practical suggestions for looking around our own homes with fresh eyes. In this way, we can often reconfigure an area so that it better serves its intended function without resorting to expensive remodeling projects. But why on earth are there no illustrations or photos at all? The author describes countless examples of homes across America, both landmark sites (such as Washington's Mount Vernon and Jefferson's Monticello) and homes that could be in our own neighborhoods, but the point she is trying to make is often lost among the words when a simple photo or two would have worked beautifully. I'm holding off on buying this book in hopes that the paperback edition will include the photos that should have been included in the first release.
Average customer rating:
- Good Reference for Building First Log Home
- General Overview of Log Homes
- Good but not great!
- Just pictures and a few undetailed floor plans
- Concise, to the point
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Small Log Homes: Storybook Plans and Advice
Robbin Obomsawin
Manufacturer: Gibbs Smith, Publisher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1586850431 |
Book Description
Whether you're planning a starter home or a lifelong retreat, Small Log Homes is an indispensable idea book for planning, building, and outfitting your cabin in the woods or on the prairie. Lush photographs show how log-home owners, builders, and contractors around the country have achieved the richness and warmth of cabin living within the bounds of economy and space management. And all without feeling cramped or hamstrung. For more information about log home building please visit the Author's Website.
Customer Reviews:
Good Reference for Building First Log Home.......2007-08-18
This book is a great reference for the first time log home buyer. Many links to take you down other paths. Robbin outlines a few things that many new buyers should look out for in a compact way. There are also several nice photgraphs that will add to your idea database. The floor plans in the back of the book are great general floor plans to start and modify in your own way. I nearly used the entire book to plan my cabin project. Many thanks to Robbin for a great reference.
General Overview of Log Homes.......2007-05-17
This book is a nice little overview of small log homes. It's not meant to be a "how to" manual, or provide detailed information. It's just a starter for those dreaming of building a log home.
Some of the positives are that the book itself is high-quality, the photos are very good for the most part, and it does provide enough information to help determine if a log home really is for you. Some of the negatives for me are the photos are unrelated (there will be photos of the exterior of two log homes, followed by a photo of a kitchen, followed by a photo of a porch, followed by a photo of another kitchen . . . interspersed with text that may or may not have anything to do with the photos shown); I would have preferred groups of photos of one home at a time so I could understand the house better. And the plans and elevations at the back of the book are "stand-alones" for the most part; they are unrelated to the photos shown earlier in the book. It would have been nice to have plans and photos of homes actually built.
It's a nice "starter" book, so I gave it four stars. For me personally, I would have given it three stars for its usefulness.
Good but not great!.......2007-05-13
I'm trying to design some sort of floorplan for my future log home and I thought this might give me some ideas....it's not that great. In fact I'm disappointed from what I thought it would be and should have taken more of the reviews to heart. It basically goes over building a log home...ok - well I thought it would be focused more on its title: Small Log Homes: Storybook Plans and Advice. The advice it gives is probably stuff you've already heard before...and the plans are just more of the generic ones you see from all the log home manufacturers.
Just pictures and a few undetailed floor plans.......2003-09-30
The pictures are beautiful, and there are a few floorplans at the back. The text however is useless, unless you need to be told that putting in lots of options will raise the price, create the floorplan based on your family's interests and that you shouldn't spend more than you can afford. It really isn't anything more than you could get with a 10 minutes trip to the website of a log home manufacturer, except that it has much less info!
It tells you, for example, that you should make careful and deliberate use of all the space by planning it carefully, but does not show examples of good planning, give you thought provoking questions to ask yourself, or anything that could help you do it.
The book mentions that there are 2 types of log cabins, names them and gives a few uncaptioned photographs, without even one word to tell you what the advantages of one over the other might be.
It tells you that a complicated roof is more expensive than an uncomplicated one. Did you need to be told? It does not tell you what the choices are in roof styles, the advantages and weather reasons you might want one more than the other, dispite the cost, and it certainly does not tell you what the price differences are (even an approx % difference would have been a start).
It does not suggest anything useful and should only be bought by someone who is on their way to the log home manufacturer in their area so that they can point to the pictures in the book and facilitate the teaching the company will then have to provide. This is for a person buying a finished, installed product, not building a home.
I was very disappointed and would never have bought this book if I had seen it in a bookstore. It is meant for someone who buys magazines exclusively for the pictures and does not read the articles. This will not help you build a house.
Concise, to the point.......2003-08-03
A good, usable well-illustrated book for the everyday person..the middle class "dreamer". Not focused on millionare showplaces, but homes for the average family, homes under 2500 sq ft. Cozy photos and a nice selection of floor plans. A good working tool if you are considering a log home in your future.
Amazon.com
A house that's designed to be beautiful and house an active, energetic family may seem like a tall order for an architect, but the 24 homes featured in The New Family Home meet both needs extraordinarily well. Author Jim Tolpin takes readers through all the nooks and crannies of these well-planned homes, where every inch of space is maximized to create a family living space that's attractive as well as functional.
Many of the 24 homes share several characteristics popular with today's families, such as a great room (rather than the separate living room, dining room, and kitchen configurations of the past), so that family members can feel connected even while pursuing separate activities. A home office sometimes needs to be incorporated into the home or property, as telecommuting has become both possible and popular. Separate media rooms that house the television, video games, and stereo are also frequently requested, as they allow families to preserve the living room as a distraction-free place to spend time with each other.
Adaptability is the key to making these homes work, and Tolpin explains how this element is incorporated into each house. For instance, what is currently a guest bedroom on the first floor of a home can be converted to a bedroom for a teen who wants more privacy, and then to an accessible master bedroom for the aging parents after the child moves out. This flexibility in a home makes sense considering the current trend of families who want to live in their homes longer rather than move when a house no longer fits their lifestyle. By making a house's space adaptable and multifunctional, it can fill many roles through the years, and a family can live happily in one home for many decades.
Each family in The New Family Home required a home designed to meet their specific needs and wishes, and the book documents how the family worked with the architect who translated their requests into reality. The end result is a home that fits each family's particular lifestyle now and for the foreseeable future. --Kris Law
Book Description
These days, home is often the only place to relax, escape anxiety, and enjoy time with one's family. It's no wonder people are now spending more money and time on their home and its comforts. Recognizing this trend, author Jim Tolpin asked some of the country's top residential architects for examples of homes designed specifically with families in mind. Whether for traditional, single-parent, blended, or extended families, or for accommodating visiting kids and grandkids, all the homes in this book are tailored to the people who live in them.
Customer Reviews:
This is a lot to find in one book.......2004-05-19
I first checked this book out of the library, then liked it so much that I bought it. With 24 homes in it this book was a bit overwhelming at first. It took me a week to carefully read. I agree with the reviewer who said that the floor plans were disappointing. I believe that was intentional so that people don't "steal" the architect's designs. The descriptions at times were too brief and frustrating in their lack of citing sources for materials. The book, though, does what it set out to do very well; promote the concept of flowing and multi-use space as the new design for modern living. Some of the ways that these families customized their homes to their lifestyle are amazing. Everyone should have a custom home because they have a custom lifestyle and preferences. Some of these families made the trade-off of a smaller house to own a custom house that they could afford. These people and their homes are inspiring.
The New Family Home for Al Gore's "Richest 1%"!.......2001-03-21
No no no. This book should be titled "The New Family Home for the New Economy", since practically all of the example homes described could only be afforded by folks who cashed in their dotcom stock options in March of 2000. I hate to bash a book with Jim Tolpin's name on it, but it's hard to believe that this was written by the same guy who brought us "The New Cottage Home" and "Built in Furniture". The idea is right on: homes should be able to adapt to our needs as our needs change. But there are more creative ways of achieving this goal than building a separate room for every activity (a media room, a game room, a home office, an exercise room, and on and on and on, all of which, presto-change-o, turn into something else when we decide little Billy needs a PlayStation room or mommy needs a yoga room), not to mention "Great Rooms" scaled to Jolly Greeen Giant proportions. I would recommend "More Small Houses" or "Building the Not So Big House" (as well as Tolpin's other books mentioned above) as better alternatives. Even if you really do need a bigger house, these books show how small spaces can accommodate more -- more stuff, more activity, more living -- and nothing could be more important in this day of starter-McMansions and astronomical building costs.
Great general ideas for a "family" house.......2001-02-17
We are in the pre-beginning stages of building...writing down ideas, concepts, before hiring an architect to design. This book is great for its general ideas in regard to family houses. The ideas of combined kitchen/living space, children's "quarters", importance of master suites and ensuring the house will fit changing needs as children grow are great. I've taken notes on the concepts I like and would like to incorporate in our home.
The Heart of the Family.......2000-08-29
We just finished building our first family home in 1999 and I wish I had this book before we began! We looked at 10,000 floorplans and now live in a craftsman style, family friendly home in the woods. What a gift is a well-designed, well-built house. But the heart of the family is not the building, but the love and commitment which grows between family members by God's grace.
For another book published in April 2000 on the family home, take a look at THE FAMILY CLOISTER: BENEDICTINE WISDOM FOR THE HOME, by David Robinson (New York: Crossroad, 2000).
Nice photos, poor floor plans.......2000-08-15
While this book contains many fine crafted houses, nicely photographed. As an architect, I was very dissapointed with the 'sketchy' floor plan presentation format. Not only do the plans lack a sense of scale (It would be nice to see proposed furniture layouts that could better indicate how people relate), but kitchens and bath rooms are shown just as boxy rooms (no fixtures or casework!)
Book Description
The Smart Approach to Home Renovation is the latest title in the best-selling series of The Smart Approach To books. Author Susan Boyle Hillstrom counsels would-be remodelers about the process, from planning and budgeting through completion. She also tells the stories of real-life homeowners and their makeovers that include kitchens, baths, additions, exterior updates, and outdoor living spaces. These Case Studies are followed by picture-driven Design Workbooks that illustrate important design features within the projects. In all, the book contains hundreds of photographs that include both before and after shots of remodelings, plus plenty of inspirational shots.
Customer Reviews:
Lots of Good Words.......2007-03-22
I like the opening sentence of this book, 'Before you take a single step toward fulfilling your remodeling dreams, do a thorough reality check.' Having been through a serious remodel (after a fire) I can assure you that the advice she gives is well founded. Her ideas on working with contractors are very good, but I'd add one more thing to check - contractors are bonded. Find out how big the bond is. If it's say $20,000 and he defaults on four projects, you're only covered to $5,000, max.
Kitchens, this book, and most other books on remodeling show kitchens that have commercial grade gas stovetops. They're really neat, but wait until you see the price of new ones. However, restaurants go out of business and the stoves last forever, you might get a really good price on a used unit. Or in my kitchen I got one that had been used by the restaurant supply company at a trade show. It wasn't new, but the price was less than half.
Tile floor in the kitchen? It looks great. Don't drop anything. A jar of mayo that falls on a carpet is usually OK. On tile, it's a mess.
All in all, lots of good words here that if heeded can save you a bundle of money, of aggravation.
Book Description
Home designs that strike a balance between modern convenience and artistic expression.
55 new designs and new designers provide a fresh approach to contemporary design aesthetic.
The most comprehensive collection of contemporary homes you'll find anywhere.
Unique use of building materials and geometric shapes result in one-of-a-kind homes that fit anywhere.
Contemporary home design has come into its own in the last few years. Contemporary Home Plans Second Edition expands the realm of possibilities by calling on the best and brightest of the nation's residential designers to showcase these innovative homes.
Complete construction blueprints are available separately.
Customer Reviews:
the cover is misleading.......2007-02-06
I was expecting a more modern approach to home plans. what the book was full of was traditional architecture. The most compelling plan is on the front cover. Most of it is filled with mcmansionesque type plans. don't bother.
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