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

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

List Price: $24.95
Your Price: $16.47
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I don't think so.
Review: I have been looking for ideas for a cabin I plan to build and live in full time. This book did not offer much along those lines. The variety of "houses" was surprisingly vast, but as far as structures one could actually live in it was slim pickin's. From an ice fishing shanty to a canvas house this was an interesting read, but didn't offer the sort of home where one would place the computer desk and hang a picture. As a collection it is interesting and sometimes fun. But I don't regard this book as much help for someone wanting to actually wind up with a place to call home.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not What I Expected
Review: I have been looking for ideas for a cabin I plan to build and live in full time. This book did not offer much along those lines. The variety of "houses" was surprisingly vast, but as far as structures one could actually live in it was slim pickin's. From an ice fishing shanty to a canvas house this was an interesting read, but didn't offer the sort of home where one would place the computer desk and hang a picture. As a collection it is interesting and sometimes fun. But I don't regard this book as much help for someone wanting to actually wind up with a place to call home.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not What I Expected
Review: I have been looking for ideas for a cabin I plan to build and live in full time. This book did not offer much along those lines. The variety of "houses" was surprisingly vast, but as far as structures one could actually live in it was slim pickin's. From an ice fishing shanty to a canvas house this was an interesting read, but didn't offer the sort of home where one would place the computer desk and hang a picture. As a collection it is interesting and sometimes fun. But I don't regard this book as much help for someone wanting to actually wind up with a place to call home.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Cute, simple inspiration
Review: The houses contained in this book are small little testaments to human's need to have their own space. Although I don't own my own house, I hope that when I do, I can create my own little hideaway in the backyard. A writer's den, potting shed, a quiet place to think. The houses in this book show that square footage doesn't equal endearment.

Each house is coupled with a short description, diagrams of how it is built and its completed layout.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I don't think so.
Review: 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!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Lovely and Interesting!
Review: This book is charmingly presented, good for dreamers as well as doers. It describes the roles that tiny houses have played in the lives of Americans - as pioneer dwellings, summer leisure houses, and short-time dwellings for disaster victims - since this country began. It illustrates and describes tiny houses (under 300 sf) in enough detail that a reader can begin planning one of his own. The drawbacks to this book are: the skewed cultural perspective, which is white European American to the exclusion of African American and American Indian dwellings; and the statement in the introduction that the author cannot help readers track down hard-to-find plans for the illustrated buildings (although he does provide a useful bibliography).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Thoreau's vision
Review: This is a wonderful book - all the detail anyone could want about a very simple house-let, good for a garden or an ice floe or a forest or just a delightful daydream. (Be aware that this author has several books out, but they all contain the same houses and pictures and comments; order one and you've ordered them all.)

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Grandly Overstated
Review: This is an attractive book with lots of pictures. However, I was disappointed with the shallow treatment given to most of the houses. The author does explain that he is not presenting plans or architectural guidelines for the houses. But what is presented is a strange mix of information about each building. Some historical, some fanciful. Only the section about "Camp Houses" is dealt with in depth. It's an unbalanced book.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Don't buy with Tiny tiny Houses!!
Review: Unless Amazon made an error these books are exactly the same. I bought Tiny Tiny Houses a year ago and just discovered that the contents of A little house of my own is the same.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Book to Enjoy; Houses to Think About
Review: What was the average home like in Plymouth Colony? What is meant by "living in a bandbox" (Philadelphia town houses in the Federal period)? Do you want to look inside several "gingerbread" cottages at those Methodist Church summer colonies? Can "America's first architect", Thomas Jefferson, bring the same style and elegance to a very small structure that he brought to Monticello? Where can you turn to for a modern timberframe cabin (or two) that combines style with a pre-cut kit? In "A Little House of My Own", Lester Walker gives the answers--in prose descriptions that hit the high points by explaining useful features; in lovely color pictures of exteriors and interiors; in three-dimensional scale drawings that show rooms as they were furnished for use.

The author's selections of experimental small houses take us "inside" the architect's profession to show readers how one uses cutting edge materials or meets special housing needs. Unfortunately, these projects usually only exist as cut-out models and they are not as compelling as the built forms that have stood the test of time in so many of our communities. My conclusion: this is a book I have read and reread with great interest...and I bet you will, too.


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