Here are the first-floor floor plans, including electrical fixtures + furniture (for scale, and for Beautiful to decide how she wanted to arrange). This drawing does not include wiring, plumbing, or gas schematics; anything pertaining to the 2nd floor; SIP plans; dimensions; sectionals; roof plans; or elevations. And to think I did it all in an illustration program–and the house was engineered, built, and inspected to these plans, and hasn’t fallen down yet.

On designing one’s house, part II

This morning’s post with the house plans doesn’t count, though I do get kudos for remembering to get the image. (My meeting was out at 10:21 last night, and I was in bed at 11:12!).

I put an asterisk* by the acronym SIP on yesterday’s post and forgot to connect it to anything. What are SIPs, you say? Well, I’m glad you asked.

SIP stands for “structural insulated panel.” It is a thick layer of insulating polystyrene sandwiched between sheets of OSB (oriented strand board. When you build your own house you learn a lot of acronymns). The shell of our home, including the roof, is built entirely of SIPs. This makes for a thick, tight shell that we can heat all winter in the snowiest place in the county (according to Mike, our neighbor who plowed these roads for decades) with a few cords of wood. It also makes the house quiet and quite strong; our roof, for example, is rated for a 90-lb snow load when most homes around here are about 40. You can learn more technical information here. The principal reason for building out of SIPS is that they are warm.

I like warm.

I love living in a cold climate, as long as my home is always warm.

The home I grew up in had one wood burning stove at the basement at the opposite end of the house, and the bedroom I shared with my brother was upstairs at the opposite end of the house. I was always cold. Later on I served a mission in Argentina, where most homes and buildings do not have central heat. In the wintertime I was always cold. I remember thinking that in winter, the only warm places were the bed and the shower. I would wear almost my entire wardrobe and still be cold. So when I began designing my own home, I went for warm.

I didn’t want a traditional framed home. On frosty mornings, you can sometimes see a frame home’s every stud right through the walls. I looked at ICF, the insulating concrete forms; I looked at log; I looked at stone; I even looked at straw bale. Nope, it came down to SIPs.

And after two severe winters in our home, one while building it, the other while living in it, I’m glad I did.