American Dream Homes: Luxury Design : 50 New Glamour Homes Paperback – October 1, 2002

I bought this book to get ideas for a custom home we were building. I loved the full-page color photos, and found a few ideas I could incorporate in my new home, even though it is much smaller than these plans! I love Colonial, European, and Neo-classic styles, so there were only a few homes with touches of these styles (hence, only 4 stars), but I still found the book useful. For more classic, European style homes, I highly recommend "Villa Decor - Decidedly French and Italian Style" and "French Influences", both by Betty Lou Phillips.

What a perfect way to dream about building your new home. We found so many ideas inside that we had to start making a list of our "needs" and "wants" and still stay within our budget.

I will never be able to afford any of the homes in this book, and even if I could, I don't think I'd want something that big. Regardless, it is fun to look

I have bought house plan books before and normally only the first few are in full color and then the rest are black and white and don't show any interior photos. This book, however, has full color photos for every house plan featured. They show a few interior pictures for each, and it is by far the best house plan book I have found. Although, every plan in this book is quite large and you'd have to be a millionaire to be able to afford them.

Ok,I just read...well skimmed through this book,I just looked at the pics of all the gorgeous houses.My house is custom designed and I wanted to see some other interesting designs.Well I certainly got alot of ideas for my next house,I personally think i'ts a brilliant book that anyone that is fascinated with wealth should read!

I was disappointed because the majority of the plans in this book have the master bedroom on the ground floor. I've purchased 5 different new-build houses in the suburbs of NYC, Chicago and London and never come across a home with the master on the ground floor. Two realtor friends tell me they are unusual and difficult to resell unless in a retirement community. If you're looking for a ground floor master you'll probably find the book useful but anyone building a traditional house will probably be disappointed as I was.

The photos in this book are not exclusive, as they can be found in many other books and magazines. It is certainly a better value than "dream home" magazines that usually sell for $7 a pop at the newstands, but it pales in comparison to "Dan Sater's Luxury Home Plans". Sater's book is better in just about every way... larger format, larger pictures, thicker paper, a better selection of homes in my opinion (not to mention a few identical ones), and a lower price.You probably already know that the purpose of these books is to sell home plans. That's why they're so cheap. From a consumer standpoint, they're fun to browse through and you don't feel any buyer's remorse since you can easily spend more money at McDonald's.If you're looking for a book to get valuable ideas for your next home or remodel, take a look at "Home by Design" by Sarah Susanka.

Yes, these homes are beautiful. It is fun to pick the one I would like to live in and make it suit my own vision