Initial Thoughts

House number two is now on the horizon.  It's a difficult lot, a forward facing slope with a significant elevation gain from front to back.  The lot is currently wooded, overgrown, and seems to have been used by neighbors as a dumping ground for their brush and limbs for years.

For this house I have two basic design criteria driving my decisions.  First is affordability.  Houses today are not terribly affordable.  Everyone wants a McMansion, but hardly anyone can afford one.  Looking at the houses of today vs the houses are parents and grandparents purchased two things are evident.  The houses of today are larger and more complex.  If you drive through an older subdivision you will find squares and rectangles.  Houses were smaller and simpler and took up a smaller percentage of the average wage earners paycheck.  Out last house was 2700 square feet this house will be somewhere between 1800 and 2500.

That last number doesn't sound that much different than 2700 but over 600 sf will be "to be finished later" space, and we may or may not build that area in the first place.

My second criteria is about energy efficiency.  If you remember our last house used structural insulated panels, we had all our ductwork inside the heated cooled part of the house, used a marathon hot water heater (a very well insulated electric tank water heater), energy star appliances, and a front load washer dryer set.  All that kept our utility bills reasonable.

This time around we are going to use some different construction techniques to make our building envelope even more energy efficient.  To that end we'll have double stud walls with three layers of R15 fiberglass batts.  We will air seal with acoustical caulk both on the exterior sheathing and the drywall to create a very air tight building envelope.  We will likely use a mini-split unit with a heat recovery ventilation system for our HVAC system.  A heat pump water heater will lead to more efficiencies there and we will possibly use Whirlpool's new condensing dryer to lower energy output there as well.

The subdivision we are building on is not on city sewer so we will have a septic tank.  I've never had a septic tank before, but everyone tells me they work just fine and I have no reason to no believe them.  The thing I am excited about is no more sewer bill!!  Yippeee!!

In the last house our average utility bill (water, sewer, and electric) was $263.  That's not horrible for a 2700 square foot house.  This time around my goal is to lower that to $75.  With no sewer bill, lower heating and cooling costs, lower water heating costs, and cost to operate our dyer I'm hoping that is a realistic goal.