Tour the new dream home: At International Builders' Show, it's small, virtual, and affordable.

The New Economy Home, designed by Marianne Cusato, is on virtual display at the International Builders Show, which opens Tuesday in Las Vegas.
What a difference a year makes! The International Builders' Show, which opens Tuesday in Las Vegas, planned to showcase a huge and glamorous New American Home, as it's done in years past. Instead, it has a virtual display of the New Economy Home.
What happened? The economy. The builders of the 6,800 square-foot dream home couldn't get enough financing to finish it. They lost it to foreclosure in December.
So Builder magazine is offering an entirely virtual tour of a sustainable home that, at 1,771 square feet, is one-fourth the size. There are also four small, factory-built, energy-efficient homes on display in the Las Vegas Convention Center's parking lot.
Architect The combined living-dining room of The New Economy Home, on virtual display this week at the International Builders Show, has windows on three walls.
Marianne Cusato walks Green House readers through her four-bedroom, three-bath New Economy Home. She calls it "the most innovative home never built." Two are actually now under construction in Warwick Grove, N.Y., at about $95 a square foot, and more have been ordered.
(Update 1/19: in response to reader comments, the cost cited is just for the house, not the land. The homes' total price tag: $350,000.)
"Small is the new big," says Cusato in an interview, adding that good design can make small homes live large.

Here's a guided tour, in her words:
The home is designed to be simple to build, livable and beautiful. The simple form of the house allows budget to be put where it matters – in the places a homeowner can touch and feel like the front porch. Side windows make the house live larger while also allowing for cross ventilation and natural light at all times of day.
The first floor of The New Economy Home, on virtual display this week at the International Builders Show, includes a living/dining room, kitchen, half bath and adaptable suite.
On the first floor, there's a combined living/dining room that is connected but separate from the kitchen. In the back is an adaptable suite, with a separate entrance and a possible kitchenette, that can be used as rental unit, an in-law suite, a home office or a downstairs master suite.

The second floor of The New Economy Home has three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a bonus storage room.
On the second floor, there are three bedrooms, including two secondary bedrooms with a shared bath and a master suite. Off the master suite is a storage area, which can be converted over time to a sitting room, home office or nursery.
The entry foyer of The New Economy Home, on virtual display this week at the International Builders Show, is open to the combined living-dining room but has a separate, formal feel.
The entry foyer defines the point of arrival. It is separated from the living room to be more formal as well as to protect people in the home from the elements when the front door is opened and closed. The stairs add an element of architectural interest.
The living room is designed to be open yet defined from the kitchen. Windows on three walls open up the room to the outdoors making it live large. This version shows a formal dining area with a desk against the side wall and the living room area in the distance.

The white kitchen is open to the combined living-dining room but remains its own room.
In the kitchen, the double height KraftMaid Cabinets maximize storage. The space-saving double oven and range, all in one unit, from Whirlpool help to make the kitchen live larger.

The adaptable suite, part of The New Economy Home, can also be shown as a family room or as a home office.
The adaptable suite, shown here as an apartment, could be a downstairs master bedroom, a family room, a home office, an income-producing rental unit or an in-law suite for an elderly parent or boomerang child.

Two ways to make a compact home live larger is to minimize hallway space and to capture storage wherever possible. The stair landing doubles as the hallway for the second floor, maximizing usable space and minimizing circulation space. A set of bookshelves is built into the side of the stairs creating additional storage.

One of the secondary bedrooms on the second floor can be used for a child's bedroom or a home office. One important feature is windows on two walls, which allows cross ventilation and reduces dependence on mechanical systems.

The bonus storage room, off the master bedroom, could be converted into a sitting room, a home office or a nursery.
A storage room, accessed off the second-floor master bedroom suite, can be finished as a sitting room (shown) or as a home office or nursery (not shown.) (Note: This 229 square feet is not included in the 1,771 square feet of finished space.).

The house features durable low-maintenance materials, such as fiber-cement siding, high-performance Anderson windows, well-insulated walls (R-22) roof/attic (R-44) crawl space, (R-30), a compact footprint and a high-efficiency HVAC system.

For more information on KraftMaid Cabinetry, contact KraftMaid Seattle (206) 402-4950