Golden Valley home by ‘Not So Big House’ architect Sarah Susanka lists at $1.2M

In 1990, eight years before architect Sarah Susanka wrote her bestseller “The Not So Big House,” she designed a home for Peter and Anett Grant in Golden Valley.

“We loved the warmth of Sarah’s houses,” Anett Grant said.

Now, after 35 years, the Grants are retiring to Florida and have put their beloved home on the market for $1,195,000.

Susanka remembers the house well.

“Peter and Anett were unusual clients for me because they had such modern tastes,” she said. “They wanted a home with the same spatial character as my other houses, but with a sparer aesthetic.”

The Grants’ home features many design principles that Susanka would later outline in her 1998 book, a rebuke to the size-over-quality values of the McMansion era.

For example, the main floor has sightlines from one end of the house to the other, with a focal point at each (a fireplace/art niche and a window, respectively). Susanka calls the techniques “Long View Through” and “Light to Walk Toward,” and she used them to create a sense of spaciousness and engagement.

“It creates a sense of shelter around the kitchen without it being separated by walls,” Susanka explained.

The second floor has four bedrooms and two baths. In the primary suite, there’s a curved window wall and windows overlooking the woods. The Grants’ Asian travels influenced the Japanese-inspired bathroom, which has a cedar-paneled soaking tub.

The 4,060-square-foot home has accommodated the Grants through many phases of life, and that’s by design. The lower level has a separate entrance, a bedroom and bath, and a family room, making it perfect for the family’s live-in nanny when ​the couple’s two children were little. When they got older, a teenager’s lair. E​ventually, ​Peter turned the bedroom into an office.

A huge built-in window seat (another Susanka hallmark) under an arched window in the family room was ​a favorite location for the kids’ stuffed animals. Later, it became a spot for party guests to sit and chat.

“This house has all kinds of places to tuck in and play, read a book or have a conversation. That was all Sarah,” Anett Grant said. “She knew how to make a house feel comfortable.”

Peter Grant recalled how Susanka knew in 1990 how TVs were going to become flatter and built the family room cabinet accordingly. And when her prediction came true, the Grants were able to swap their bulky cathode-ray model for a sleek screen without altering the cabinet.

Listing agent Sara Kranz said the Grants’ home is in one of the most coveted pockets in Golden Valley because it abuts 759 acres of Theodore Wirth Park.

“This is a very quiet cul-de-sac in a very private setting,” Kranz said

According to the Regional Multiple Listing Service, in 2025, 28 homes in the Tyrol Hills neighborhood of Golden Valley have either received an accepted offer or closed, with an average price of approximately $935,000.

Kranz has shown the house to a handful of Susanka fans, some from as far away as Chicago. Kranz points out the home, while architecturally special, would function equally well for a family, a couple who like to entertain or anyone who wants to live close to nature.

Susanka finds it gratifying the Grants have enjoyed the house for so long and looks forward to ​its next chapter with a new set of owners.

“The houses I’ve designed are like my babies,” she said. “I like to know who’s taking care of them.”

Sara Kranz of Edina Realty (612-968-8808, SaraKranz@edinarealty.com) has the $1,195,000 listing