Architectural Designs

Looking at building a new, small, very economic house..?

I've drawn it up on my home design program.... Rough dimensions are 16 x 30, two floors plus a full basement... Exterior will be wrapped in vinyl(Beige) with brown trim. Barn style roof with architectural shingles(Brown as well), Windows will be tinted, double pane, argon injected... Im looking at extending the roofline 12 feet off both the front and back and builing upper decks that both enter and exit off my loft/bedroom area upstairs(The whole upstairs will pretty well be my bedroom.. The back side i'm looking at just doing all the away across with glass and having a sliding glass door there.. On the front one? Just a regular door and a windoe on each side of it.. As far as heating and cooling? Two 20,000 btu a/c window style units and the liquid filled type baseboard heaters(2 4' , 3 6', and one 2' in the bathroom.. Also i'll have a corner operational fireplace in the living room... All rooms and deck areas, including the kitchen, will have ceiling fans.. Plus i'll be installing recessed can lighting in all areas and use regular R30 style cfl's in ares where they are not going to dimmed and R30 style dimmable CFL's in areas where i want to be able to dim them... Kitchen i'm looking at all stainless and/ or black appliances and plenty of cabinet space... Basement will have the bathroom, laundry and pantry area.. Laundry appliances will be HE type front loaders...(probably stainless as well.) What i'm wondering is what to go with on the interior.. Here are my choices(Oak, Ash, Cedar or Knotty Alder(Somebody suggested this and it is pretty nice..). First floor im looking at tiling(The whole thing, due to the fireplace and safety issues yada yada.. Upstairs will more than likely be natural hardwood, and the basement(all of it done it tile as well..(All the tile will be done in a granite color pattern.).. I'll be adding some other additional features, but those are propietary.. So what do you think for the interior? Now i have given it some thought that maybe in the future, Glassing in the front deck area and using it as basically a pseudo greenhouse area, and having my back one for recreational purposes.. But that'll be down the road... All lighting color will be 2700K by the way... The basement will have a drop ceiling(For maintenance and add on reasons if need be..). All of the well equpment, water heater(I.e Bladder, controls, etc will be in the basement as well. I.ll of, course put the pit in the basement and install a grinder pump...(I'll pick up an additional and put it up for redundant purposes of course... For the bladder tanki'll be purchasing the type withe the changeable interior bladder if this one were to rupture for some odd reason..) And of course an extra pressure switch.. Walls will be 2 x 6 on 16 centers of course.. Floors will be 2 x 8 on 18 16s. Roof will be 2 x 6 on 16s. Recessed cans will, of course, all be IC rated.. The ceiling fams will all be set up on thermostatic type control for auto operation.. Ill have a back up gen (LP and/or E85/unleaded fuel type)( 25 KW 1800 rpm 2.5L 4 cyl water cooled type..)(reason for the larger size is for my outbuilding too....). Insulation will be R-19 in the walls and more than likely blown in the attic area(Unless i decide to use it for storage..Haven't decided on that yet.)I will put in a fold down staircase either way.... The house will be boxed first in 1/2" OSB. Floors will be 3/4 plywood on the first and 1/2 on the second.. See Dizz i thought about doing both the upperfloors in ICF actually, but for this area i'm also calculating cost effectiveness... The cost would be approximately 27% higher in ICF over wood... Now if and when i do my place out in Wyoming? I'll more than likely end up doing that one in ICF with a steel truss type roof... Everything else will be pretty well the same within it though... My overall costs on this? You wouldn't believe it if i showed you... ;) It's only 1440 sq ft for all 3 floors? I'm not going to factor in the decks on this figure though.. Look how small i was able to get my footprint? ;) She'll definitely be comfortable.. I was working and trying to sell this idea back in 02... My average utility costs per month on it? Between 45 and 50 dollars a month.. But like i said some other things i am doing are propietary.. I will not talk about them on here... I will tell you that the water heater will act only merely as a hot water reservoir during the spring and summer months.. It won't even be turned on.. Noe the 45 to 50 a month is if i use the utility company.... ;) One 16" center section on the North wall and east wall will be chased from the basement area to both the upper floors. It'll of course be lined in rock wool for insulative purposes by mainly for pulling the cool air out of the basement during the summer and the warmer air during the winter.. It'll also help in keeping the basement area dry, due to probable condensational buildup and help either hinder or completely eliminate any possible chance of mold formation.... The dryer...The better... During the winter months i.ll just use a small humidifier if necessary, but i shouldn't really have to since i'm planning on burning wood most of the time.... The baseboards are merely redundant and honestly? Will seldomly ever be used... Except of course if I decide to box in the front deck area for my makeshift greenhouse(That's on the east side by the way..) I'll go ahead and pull the wire for the additionals out here that way if i decide to add it later(Which i'll probably more than likely will...) I'm probably going to go ahead and add my 16 x 12 x 10 UG reservoir underneath my back ground floor slab out the backdoor. It won't cost that much more to do during the initial constrcuction pahse so i'll probably just go ahead and do it while i'm at it.. Set that up on an isolated solar powered/ battery DC pump for water... And just use the well to fill it....That damn thing would hardly ever kick on that way...LOL!!! and captil it on one end where i can drop in a hand pump if ever necessary.. Plus i'll have a few months of water storage this way too.. And yes the water will be gravity fed from the reservoir to the basement. The pump will be merely be for pressure purposes, hell i could set it up for in demand if i want to and use the pressure tank as a redundant thing.. Still either way, the whole project is really economic overall.. Now hopefully you're starting to understand a little more why there are those who want me out of the picture per se.. It's all very real dear...

Public Comments

1. What a wonderful idea & i think you really have something here . As for the Interior , i think its such a personal choice bit things like slate floors & earth materials would last forever . Did you know they are now taking old railroad cars & converting each box into houses . They are even stacking two on top of each other to give a second story for bedroom & bath . Great idea & good luck D :)