Small Homes: The Right Size

by Lloyd Kahn

Overview

Find inspiration from DIY owner—builders who constructed their own small homes in this coffee—table book filled with photography.

Are tiny homes too little for you? Well, small is bigger than tiny! The average American home is 2,500 square feet—that’s too big. The tiny home averages 200–300 square feet—that’s too little. The small homes featured here are 400–1,200 square feet—just right! American homes are getting bigger and bigger, but small homes are less expensive, use fewer resources, are more efficient to heat and cool, and are less costly to maintain and repair. They are desirable for those who want to avoid a bank mortgage or high rents yet need more room than a tiny house can offer.

Lloyd Kahn has been a leader in the green—building movement for over 40 years. In Small Homes, he presents 120 small homes via more than 1,000 full—color photographs. The homes vary from unique and artistic to simple and low—cost. Some are ordinary buildings that provide shelter at a reasonable cost, and some are inspiring examples of design, carpentry, craftsmanship, imagination, creativity, and homemaking. Some are built with natural materials, such as cob or straw, and some with recycled wood or lumber milled on—site. Some are old homes that have been remodeled, while many were designed and built from scratch. Many are in the country, some in small towns, and some in large cities. Dozens of builders share their knowledge of building and design, with artistic, practical, and/or economical homes in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, France, Germany, Spain, New Zealand, and Lithuania.

Inside you’ll find

• 120 homes in the range of 400–1,200 square feet
• Owner—builder techniques
• Variety of construction methods
• Inspiration from owner—builders
• Small homes in both rural and urban areas

The underlying theme with Shelter’s books, which span more than 40 years, is that you can create your own home with your own hands, using mostly natural materials. A computer can’t build your home for you. You still need a hammer (or nail gun), a saw—and human hands.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780936070681
Publisher:	Adventure Publications, Incorporated
Publication date:	04/14/2017
Series:	The Shelter Library of Building Books
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	12.10(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Lloyd Kahn started building more than 50 years ago and has lived in a self—built home ever since. If he’d been able to buy a wonderful, old, good—feeling house, he might have never started building. But it was always cheaper to build than to buy, and by building himself, he could design what he wanted and use materials that he wanted to live with.

Lloyd set off to learn the art of building in 1960. He liked the whole process immensely. Ideally he’d have worked with a master carpenter long enough to learn the basics, but there was never time. He learned from friends and books and by blundering his way into a process that required a certain amount of competence. His perspective was that of a novice, a homeowner, rather than a pro. As he learned, he felt that he could tell others how to build—or at least get them started on the path to creating their own homes.

Through the years, he’s personally gone from post and beam to geodesic domes to stud—frame construction. It’s been a constant learning process, and this has led him into investigating many methods of construction. For five years in the late ’60s to early ’70s, he built geodesic domes. He got into book publishing by producing Domebook One in 1970 and Domebook 2 in 1971.

He gave up on domes (as homes) and published his company’s namesake Shelter in 1973. Since then, Shelter Publications has produced books on a variety of subjects and returned to its roots with Home Work in 2004, The Barefoot Architect and Builders of the Pacific Coast in 2008, Tiny Homes in 2012, and more.

Building is Lloyd’s favorite subject. Even in this day and age, building a house with one’s own hands can save a ton of money and—if you follow it through—you can get what you want in a home.

Read an Excerpt

In Praise of Small Homes

“U.S. Houses Are Still Getting Bigger” read a recent news article in The Wall Street Journal. According to the United States Census Bureau, the average size of a new single—family house in the U.S. in 2015 was 2,467 sq. ft., or 1,000 sq. ft. (61%) larger than in 1973.

Things are going in the wrong direction!

Tiny Homes In recent years, some people have opted out of a mortgage or high rent, and are living—for at least a time—in very small spaces, simplifying and rearranging their lives to do so.

The media calls this a “movement.” Why? Not only is the concept radical (revolutionary), but—tiny homes are photogenic!

The media loves them: Witness a half dozen TV shows, thousands of YouTube videos, a plethora of books, blogs, newspaper and magazine articles, and social media postings on the subject.

There have been some great—and inspiring—stories of people scaling back, simplifying, and sometimes elegantly, living a different style of life.

But there’s also been a lot of hype, like TV programs based on phony story lines, no relation to real life. Ah, me.

Our last two books were on tiny homes, so I’m familiar with the subject. After several years monitoring (and pondering) the movement, I’ve concluded that what’s important is not that homes be “tiny,” but that they be smaller. It’s the direction that counts. Maybe the tiny house movement is a clarion call for a change in consciousness.

Small Homes This book is about homes that are larger than “tiny,” but smaller than the national average. It’s a logical step for Shelter Publications after our experiences with tiny homes.

Compared to the average American home, small homes are less expensive, use less resources, are more efficient to heat and cool, and cheaper to maintain and repair.

These are (but for a few) between 400–1200 square feet of floor area—less than half the size of the typical new American home. (By way of comparison, homes in our book, Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter, averaged 200–300 sq. ft.)

Types of homes The homes here—some 65 of them—vary from unique and artistic to simple and low—cost. Some are plain, ordinary buildings that provide owners shelter at a reasonable cost—and some are inspiring examples of design, carpentry, craftsmanship, imagination, creativity, and homemaking.

Some are built with “natural materials,” such as cob or straw, some with recycled wood or lumber milled on—site, some are old homes that have been remodeled, and many are designed and built from scratch by the owners.

Many are in the country, some in small towns, and some in large cities.

In a sense, this is going back to earlier times, when people used less resources.

It’s all in the hands The underlying theme with Shelter’s books, which cover an over—40—year span, is that you can create your own home with your own hands, using mostly natural materials.

With most of these homes, the owners have done their own work. With others, they have hired builders to carry out their plans.

There’s an old—school concept working here that’s still relevant in this digital era: A computer can’t build your home for you. You still need a hammer (or nail gun), a saw—and human hands.

Table of Contents

In Praise of Small Homes

Island Home

Shake Cottage on Vancouver Island

Vin’s Small Home

Mike & Sierra’s Home in the California Foothills

Surfer’s Paradise

Wayne and Nancy’s Hawaiian Island Cabin

Digger Mountain Cabin

Timber Home Along Canada’s Sunshine Coast

Small Timber Frame Home in German Forest

Small Home in Lithuania

Cabin in the California Woods

Off—the—Grid Cabin in California Woods

Wooden Home on California Coast

The Leafspring

Octagonal Cedar Home in Pacific Northwest

SunRay Kelley’s Two—Story Treehouse in the Woods

Sally’s Beach Cabin

French Teenager Builds Cabin in Woods

Wooden Yurt in the English Woods

Small Woodland Home in Southwest England

Stone Home in Southern Spain

Small Straw Bale Home in Arizona

Lobelia: $35,000 Straw Bale Home in Missouri

Tom and Satomi Lander’s Natural Home

Timber Frame / Straw Bale Home on a Scottish Island

Timber Frame / Straw Bale Home in Missouri

The FarmHouse at Hickory Highlands

Hybrid Natural Home in Colorado High Desert

Hobbit House in Colorado Canyon

Rob & Jaki Roy’s Two—Story, Cordwood, Lakeside Home

Sasha’s Earthen Dome in the High Desert

Sun—Filled, Old Adobe Home in New Mexico

Round, Straw—Clay Home in Vermont

Cave Home in New Zealand

Earthbag Home in Turkey

Solar—Powered Quonset Hut Home in Northern California

Homestead of Recycled Materials in Quebec

Karl’s Round House on a Scottish Island

Mark & Meg’s Half—Acre California Coastal Farm

Slow Boat Farm on Washington Island

Small Home in California Foothills

River House

Debt—Free in Washington

The Little Red—Haired Girl in the Little Yellow House

Small Home in Texas

Small Home in Missouri

Fixing Up a 100—Year—Old Farmhouse in Indiana

Small Home in Minnesota

Aunt Lillie’s House

Rose’s Small Farmhouse in North Carolina

Small Home in the Big Woods of North Carolina

Owner—Builder Small Cabin in North Carolina

Small Home in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

Family Rebuilds Adirondack Lodge

Solo Builder of Small Homes in New England

Small Home in Remote Vermont Woods

Living Small in Southern Vermont

A Two—Family Home in San Francisco

Fixing Up an Old, Small Home in LA

Cabin in the Woods in Brooklyn

Urban Cabin that Harvests Sun, Rain, and Shade

The Tin Shed

Between Hills — Life in a Converted Kentucky Garage

Small Homes in Cities and Towns

Small Home, Small Motel in British Columbia

Old—Timey, Off—Grid Caravan

Houseboat in Southwest England

The Nesthouse in Scotland

Credits

The Shelter Library of Building Books