The Small House Book

Rather than living as others expect, Jay Schaffer shares advantages awaiting those considering smaller living. Assuring readers of positive environmental benefits, mobility and significant reduction in cost of living are additional motivators. You can even find tranquility as you park by a lake... or a forest, as the author did. There are design and inspiring examples from the writer's own experience. If you wish to "dream-big, on a small scale", you will find this book, excellent reading.

anyone, who loves to dream of cutting down on things, traveling to new destinations or living without all of the stuff that seems to weigh us all down, will love this book. It is beautiful and the pictures are clear, the script easy to ready and it would be difficult not to spend hours dreaming of how you could plan and build a tiny house and be so very comfortable....

Jay has variety as well as practical designs. There were designs for trailer mounted homes and slab built small homes. He has architectural styles that would fit into any area and all are under 1,000 square feet.

I'm a little biased. I work with the author, and I've known him since I first ordered a set of plans from him in 2005.So I had better make a case for my rating:- Why tiny houses?In telling his story, Jay expresses a motivation for material simplicity and a life open to more options. I know these were MY motivations for designing a tiny house, and I suspect these are the motivations for many others who are planning or building their tiny houses.- How to design tiny housesIn suggesting how to successfully design a tiny house, Jay provides good fundamentals, and his included design portfolio attests to the validity of his design principles. His designs were the best detailed and best proportioned tiny houses in 2005, and I believe this is still true at the end of 2012.- How to build tiny housesIn explaining how to build tiny houses, Jay offers real experience. Seven years ago, he had already built his 2nd tiny house, and he still had some stuff to learn about carpentry and structural design. Today, his greater experience and understanding of building construction is evident in the text and the new box bungalow designs contained within this book.-What do tiny houses look like?This book is a unique 7" x 7" format (tiny -- it fits on a standard sheet of paper with room to spare).Yet, in this small format, Jay includes numerous full-color photos of houses which exhibit his points, as well as created images of 23 houses of his own design (the last 80+ pages are a sort of 'bonus' portfolio).- And Jay writes well. It seems that his approach to writing is much like his approach to architectural design -- a meticulous process of revision, whereby he is forever finding ways to do more with less. His informal tone respects grammar, and flows for easy reading. ...but count the pages, and review everything he has just told you -- he's concise!Every industry and movement needs its own go-to book of fundamentals and inspiration. "The Small House Book" is capable of playing this role for the tiny house movement.Enjoy.

Pretty good book and I like it a lot that the author included his own experience of living in an RV to building his dream home. The book spends a great deal of time trying to convince people that spacious living is bad and that you ought to feel guilty for having enough money to live American style. I think the volume would be more well served to focus on building practices, sustainable ideas for the construction of smaller homes and how to help affect the movement to actually owning something of your own that you don't have to spend 30 years paying for. Some of the questions I had were answered by the volume, like how to construct the units and how to begin trying to find a place to park it. Over all a good read and worth the price... I would enjoy having a website devoted to the THM (Tiny House Movement) where local people, by State, can help each other make the transition and not fall into pits of legal trouble. If your interested in simplistic living, BUY IT!

Shipping was awesome. Package arrive d ahead of time. It's not very good. Lots of pictures and not much explanation.

A wonderful primer for those exploring smaller housing. Jay locates the small house movement in the wider US culture, explaining environmental, practical and beauty considerations of small housing. Lots of beautiful pics of exteriors, and some of interiors. Some great ideas, like sleeping lofts (storybook nooks! Clothes would need separate storage) . A lovely spread of ideas, including how to carefully fit your house to your life. Not a detailed how-to, more a philosophical and inspirational book. Everyone interested in more financial freedom and a unique interior layout in minimal space would enjoy this book, whether looking for a house on wheels or on a foundation. I would have preferred less of why big houses don't work, and more of how to design tiny ones that do, but I'm still expecting this to be a book I show to many people, and I will use some of the specific design ideas, like 90 degree gable roofing, a front porch, and open cathedral ceilings in some areas. It even makes me wonder if I could make my own doors... I am grateful to have been able to access an electronic version of this extraordinary book, so easily.

I couldn't possibly recommend this Kindle to anyone; you want to keep flicking through at the pictures (which often don't have the titles on the same page and also can't be made very much bigger), and instead you have to read it in strict order, unless you want to keep going back to the chapter headings. I've enjoyed novels I've read on Kindle, even ones with illustrations (the Narnia series), but this is an argument for a nice book-y sort of book that you can flick through, delve deeper and keep going back. It's confirmed for me that I will NEVER buy a cookbook, or indeed a design book, in this format; it just isn't suitable.

I guess this book covers all the things you need to know to work out if a tiny house could become your tiny home. Lots of inspiration and ideas with a healthy discussion of the aesthetics. This book has left my having to work out where I'm going to put all three that i want to build. There is a US focus but it does not by any means stop this book working for readers outside the US. The building codes just different, do your own due diligence and get over it. My only issue is the quality of the drawings on my kindle is poor but i think that a kindle issue so i haven't marked it down for that.If you're curious and need a little home or just a den somewhere this is you place to start.

This book will make you desperate to build and live in your own small house, it's practically the bible of the small house movement and a book I'll go back to time and again.

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this very informative book.May be some time before it happens but i will build one of these one day.Nice mix of information vs inspiration!

Great ideas. Would love to have one of these small houses...such great ideas for small spaces... now where's my hammer.