A coat of paint is the cheapest way to make a huge impact on your home before it hits the market. But choosing colors can be overwhelming, especially when you’re facing the climbing wall-sized paint section at the hardware store.

Fortunately there’s a new book perfect for folks looking to do their own staging. It’s called Neutral Color Schemes from Firefly books available for $29.95 (or 19.77 on Amazon).

It offers over 200 palette suggestions with a main color and 4 accent colors for trim, pillows, curtains and the like to give a room a pulled together look.

Another nice feature is that it purse/man-bag sized so you won’t ever have to face the paint swatch section alone again.

The Chicago Tribune released a list of 8 trends for real estate this year and the one that rang home for me was a movement towards “less is more” in square footage of homes.

The paper claimed that home builders are predicting a continued movement toward smaller homes, with many buyers opting for less square footage. This doesn’t mean austere in any way however as people are taking the cash they save on a smaller home and pouring it into amenities. Home buyers are looking for quality over quantity.

I know my Realtor Tom and I were discussing that the problem with a big house is that one must then FURNISH a big house - not to mention clean it.

And heat it, too. An offshoot of the smaller home trend is energy efficiency. Even in these tough times, the green movement is pushing on as buyers seek bette-than-EnergyStar appliances and the like.

 A great read on the subject of smaller homes was written by Twin City native Susan Susanka. “The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live,” was a huge hit when it came out a decade ago and the architect author continues to write on the subject.

Habitat for Humanity: How to Build a House, revised and updated

Here’s a great book that came across my desk recently.  I learned a lot of elemental stuff about home building and think it would be a great present to the first time home owner. It’s a lot easier to make repairs on a house if you can understand how it came together in the first place.

This book jumps into what is arguably the largest DIY how-to project with this hopeful statement: “Not everyone is a master carpenter. Fortunately for most of us, it’s possible to learn.”

For nearly 50 years, Habitat for Humanity has been showing laypeople the art of home construction. So it’s with a cultivated teaching voice (think your favorite uncle) that everything from how to read a measuring tape to pouring footings and sheathing a roof is patiently explained.

Filled with useful photos and illustrations, this book is a handy reference for those looking to construct big dreams. Amazon offers a sneak peek here.

Taunton Press, Publisher, www.taunton.com (203) 426-8171, soft cover, 282 pages, 370 photos $27.95.