Prefabulous Small Houses Kindle Edition

I was looking forward to this book as it covers two subjects that are of great interest to me, prefab and reasonably-sized dwellings.I have to say that I found it slightly lacking in substance. I've been following the industry for quite awhile and found a few technical errors in the text and upon reading it cover to cover, I was left underwhelmed.Visually, it's a nicely presented book, but it's definitely more of a coffee table book than one of substance except to an absolute novice. Perhaps that is the target audience and if so, then the book delivered well.I feel a bit bad about only giving it 3 stars as I think that for an absolute novice, it is a nice book; I just wish that there was more substance to it for those of us who are interested in more technical details.

I really wanted to like this book. I was really excited when it came in the mail — it had been on my wish list for a long time.There’s one really not so great thing about this book… it’s not about small houses at all.As you progress through the book the houses get bigger, until the last home which is somewhere around 3000 ft.². Maybe it’s just me, but I think a house that size qualifies as gigantic.I was really expecting a book full of 500 ft.² houses, and I was gravely mistaken.

This book has a great sampling of alternative costuction techniques that will speed construction and result in a sturdier, more energy efficient home. It contains examples of prefab panels, modular, shipping crates, metal framing, and SIPS. It was a good introduction as I plan building my second home. It was not too technical for me and gave me a good foundation to use when choosing a contractor experienced with unconventional construction. I gave it 4 stars rather than 5 because most of the houses are very modern and boxy and her definition of “small” is different from my own- some of the examples are over 2000 sq ft. I liked her other book, “prefabulous and almost off the grid”, better, as it contained more examples of homes that are appealing to my vision of a cape cod type design as a “ normal” house, not something weird that looks like a space ship. Of course, if you like modern home design, this would be a perfect book.

Due to a learning disorder, I have always been marginally employed, so I was looking to build an energy efficient house, that I could afford, that would be similar in design to a a higher quality Habitat for Humanity home. It was hard to tell from this book if any of these homes with their energy efficient features, could even be built for less than a $100,000. and remember you still have to get the land. I loved the book, the designs were wonderful, but as a regular person, not involved in construction, I found it hard to calculate a cost per square foot, or if I could design a house and use more than 1 major technology, ie. solar or geothermal, for the house design to stay under my target budget. That being said, This is the second book I have purchased from this author. The books are gorgeously photographed, with great detail and instruction about the materials used.

This book is more than just a coffee table book. It's part art, part How-To. The pics are amazing and the info is enough to lead you to learn more. Very inspirational to the art of the possible.

Now that our children have their own homes and families, my husband and I wander around our home, looking at empty rooms filled with knick-knacks and memorabilia and wonder, "Why?" This book is inspiring us to reconsider our lifestyle and seriously look into downsizing and researching the possibility of building a smaller, energy-efficient, pre-fab home. As author Koones explains, the homes are not all geared toward the high end of the price scale (despite what one of the previous reviewers claims). They are featured to show us what can be done as we move forward into a new phase of our lives. We don't need the expensive and pretentious McMansions; we want affordable, efficient, comfortable, green homes, and Sheri Koones' latest book provides us with much inspiration.

This publication presents an interesting array of the latest small houses offered by professional builders for the very, very rich. It majors on modern, spare, high style, designer lakeside retreats. Exterior and interior photos plus basic floor sketches are included. There's little ideas there for the regular do-it-your-selfer. But it's fun to look through.

Somewhat limited in design options but maybe that’s the nature of the prefab beast. Good photos. Tons of detailed information about energy efficiency, green building, etc., which will be useful on a non prefab house.

La verdad es que el libro es bueno, el contenido interesante y tiene buenas fotos sobre las casas, pero el estado en el que llegó es malo, lo venden como nuevo pero he comprado libros usados en mejor estado, viene con varios detalles, rayones, manchas, etc. y eso que el vendedor fue directamente Amazon Mexico.

Lots of ideas in here.

Great book. Received promptly.