You've Bought the House, Now Read the Book

As much an inspirational philosophy as it is a practical space-planning primer, this Minneapolis architect's 1998 classic will transform the way you view your home. In some 200 color photos, detailed floor plans, and priority lists, Susanka artfully shows how a small space is a big opportunity for creating intimate, multi-purpose rooms. Susanka's House has proven so popular that it's spawned five best-selling sequels, but the original is still the one to own.

Excerpt: Today's houses still wear the architectural equivalent of a hoopskirt, even if the accessories seem more contemporary. While we've been busy evolving over the past century, most of our houses have not. Their evolution has been constricted by outdated notions of what we think we need and what the real estate industry says we need for resale. At the turn of the new century, most houses are designed for the turn of the last. It's time to rethink our houses and to let them become expressions of the way we really live.