Little House on a Small Planet: Simple Homes, Cozy Retreats, and Energy Efficient Possibilities.

Most of us have noticed the trend: new subdivisions filled with McMansions pumped up on steroids, neighbors who demolished their cottage and replaced it with a mini-castle, the friend of a friend's childless brother who just added on a third bedroom. Many of us have suffered the consequences of an inflated mortgage, an unmanageable construction project, or a house simply too large to keep clean. Will our dream home always be a celebration of excess, and a drain on our lives?

Some wise people buck the trend. They build, remodel, redecorate, or just rethink their needs--prudently and calmly constructing a joyful, sane life around themselves. They think, sometimes literally, outside the box, and they live close, warm, and simple, applying spiritual and social solutions to their material desires. Pockets of people all over the continent are realizing the benefits of scaling down. They are designing a new dream, one that reunites extended families, makes space for friends, and emphasizes home life over home maintenance.

Little House on a Small Planet is a guidebook to this movement, and an invitation to join. Author Shay Salomon offers fourteen basic principles for the design and habitation of efficient, high-density homes. These fourteen principles outline the invisible supports of a happy home, set within the context of a future, more caring society. With floor plans, photographs, advice, and anecdotes, Little House on a Small Planet asks and answers, "What fills a home when the excess is cut away, and how do we get there from here?"

Shay Salomon is a handywoman, carpenter, and construction manager. She has built several tiny houses and now dreams of converting her smallish bungalow into two apartments. She lives in southern Arizona.

Nigel Valdez once dreamed of owning half a dozen houses all over the world. Now he dreams of having dozens of friends all over the world, and a small tent to sleep in when he visits them. He lives in southern Arizona.