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Bigger Isn't Always Better More buyers finding that smaller homes can also be big on personality By Julie Bonnin Special to the American-Statesman It's easy to assume mega-houses dominate the real estate landscape. And by the numbers, square footage in American homes is going up, up, up. Think home offices, playrooms and mud rooms for the dog -- not to mention expansive bedrooms, living rooms and baths, and the advent of the three-car garage. But the antithesis -- centered around a 1998 best seller called "Not So Big House" -- has plenty of Austin acolytes. Bigger, they say, isn't necessarily better, especially if it means living in a house that has all the charm and coziness of a big box. Meet Susan Brooks, who's put her heart and soul into creating a home for herself and partner John Salzman in the Bouldin Creek neighborhood. The couple looked at new model homes and new, centrally located homes that were "trying to look old," Brooks said. Essentially, the couple found those structures to be "soulless," Brooks said. And older homes with the character and details the couple sought, such as those in Travis Heights, were priced so high that they'd have to be left as they were, without the new owners' creative stamp. So Brooks, a career coach, and Salzman, an engineer, found a tiny, 1930s two-bedroom bungalow in the neighborhood where each was already renting. And, with "The Not So Big House" book as a conceptual blueprint for a major renovation, the two consulted with architects Mark Winford and Francois Levy of Studio Mosaic. Author Sarah Susanka's book addresses more than a handful of reasons many home buyers end up downsizing. Like Brooks, many prefer trading square footage for details that have been streamlined from other modern homes because of the cost. But they're not penny-pinchers. Instead, they're picky about materials, making choices based on personal health and environmental concerns as well aesthetic reasons. These choices tend to cost more. They want to avoid building from lot line to lot line, to construct rooms on a human scale, and to integrate outdoor spaces. And they're often yearning for some indefinable feeling that they find missing in many of today's showy, spacious homes. Brooks and Salzman had decided they wanted to build homes in Austin and in Colorado. But both travel frequently for business and pleasure. "We didn't want to be saddled with a big mortgage and an enormous house to keep up," Brooks said. They set the total amount they were willing to spend on real estate in both places, split it in half and went about finding out "how much house can I get for this amount of money," in Austin, she said. More to the point, they asked, "What's the least amount of house we can live in comfortably?" They wound up with 1,700 square feet total: a great room that encompasses kitchen, dining and living areas, a bedroom with a large bath and huge walk-in closet, and small work areas. The house -- painted a whimsical and eye-catching purple, with green and fuchsia trim -- is designed so no one will feel cramped. Niches and cubbyholes provide extra storage in the bath and elsewhere. What might have been a narrow hallway will instead function as a mini- library, with built-in bookcases on one wall and a window seat on the other. Numerous views to the outdoors add to the spacious feeling and will help bridge house and garden. Architects Winford and Levy say Brooks was the first client to come to them clutching the Susanka book, but not the last. The book has "struck a chord in our American psyche in a way," said Winford, who characterizes the approach as a reaction to "a runaway suburbanization, have-it-all sort of architecture." And although Susanka leans to an arts-and-crafts style design, the principles she writes about are applicable to many other building styles, Levy said. Molly Thornton, an associate with Venture Four Architects who has clients on a waiting list for a neighborhood she's trying to develop of smaller, detail-rich homes, finds it ironic that so many new homes lack the personality buyers such as Brooks are looking for. "That's exactly why people love old houses, because they have the funky green tile or the telephone niche in the wall, some sort of design feature that gives texture and charm and not just blank walls," Thornton said. "Deep down in their psyche, they feel the quality of life is different." The typical buyer or builder of these homes is somebody who's "a little bit more educated, with a little bit more worldliness, who travels and may have lived in different parts of the country," she said. The same people who eschew showcase homes are those who don't need to drive obviously expensive cars, Thornton said. "You're your own person so your car doesn't have to make a statement for you." And yet houses like these do make a statement. "I just loved the idea of being very conscious about how you create your space," said Brooks, whose close attention ensured the construction process was environmentally sound. Not only did the couple pay one-third more for things such as insulation made of recycled blue jeans and pecan wood flooring from sustainable mills, Brooks salvaged materials from Dumpsters and even recycled workers' soft-drink cans. A rainwater collection system and other energy conservation features qualify it for the city's Green Builder program, which promotes construction that is environmentally sound. But it's all the attention to detail that Susanka and others encourage that Brooks believes will make it a very special "Not So Big House." One thing's for sure: The house she hopes to move into in February is no chip off the old suburban block. "This is definitely our house," she said. Average square feet in U.S. homes Source: National Association of Homebuilders Year Square footage 2000 2,270 1990 2,080 1980 1,740 1970 1,500 Questions for contractors Finding the right kinds of people to build your "Not So Big House" is key. Austin architect Molly Thornton suggests that if the housing market tightens up, smaller builders will be going after these clients. Even now, architect Mark Winford said, like-minded builders, architects and craftspeople seem to "just sort of find each other." Here are some of the questions homeowner Susan Brooks asked of potential subcontractors: * Who have you worked for, and can you provide photos and references? * What kind of projects did you do? * How do you like to work? * Do you tend to work on one project at a time or several? Additional resources can be found on the Web at www.notsobighouse.com.cq   The "Not So Big House" philosophy Livability: Multifunctional rooms filled with comfort and coziness. Sustainability: Environmentally sound materials and building techniques. Proportion and geometry: Rooms that don't dwarf the people inhabiting them; structures scaled to "fit" the neighborhood and surrounding landscape. Sacred places: Imbuing a house with "soulfulness ;" making the place you inhabit a source of inspiration. Julie Bonnin is a free-lance writer in Austin.

 

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