The front foyer overlooks the finished staircase to below to allow for an expansive view to the south side of the open central dining flanked by the kitchen and living area. The hearth is also in the middle for ease of heat distribution. The dining area has plenty of room to expand for large gatherings of friends and family.

The kitchen is near the laundry/mudroom and bedroom two making it perfect for use as a day room as an office or craft room. With a glass door to the sunny south, the desk area in the laundry will receive indirect light for sewing or a computer work.

The daylight basement is shown with two extra bedrooms and a bath for a four-bedroom, three-bath home. A large southeast family room opens to a spacious east patio and even has a kitchenette nook. The bedrooms have an abundance of windows so that they will feel no different from the main floor bedrooms. The northwest room adds a lot of flexibility to this lower level as it is large enough to be divided for an exercise or craftroom especially if a window well is added on the west.

The attached two-car garage with workshop has east-facing (west-facing if plans is flipped) with the overhead doors near the front door to minimize the required lot size or for land with a steep north slope. The large workshop area can accommodate a ramp to the house if the garage floor needs to be lowered for tall vehicles or to simplify the northwest basement wall construction.

With its simple shaped walls and gable roof, the home is an easy shape to build. Walls are 6 inches thick and can accommodate extra high R-value insulation in the wall cavity or have more insulation added to the exterior. The truss framed roof with raised heels allows for extra thick, economical insulation while the truss-framed floors accommodate duct work and utilities so that an 8 foot ceiling is more acceptable and cost-effective. The roof trusses bear on 8 foot high north and south walls, but with vaulted scissors trusses, the center of the home has higher ceilings. A thinner tile system in the first floor south-facing rooms provides some thermal mass, but most mass is in the floor of the daylight basement. When connected to the first floor, this extra thermal mass will help keep the home cooler in summer too. The exterior has wide horizontal cement board lap siding, stone veneer and metal roof for a low-maintenance, fire-resistant home.

Since these ideas may affect energy performance and structural integrity, they should be undertaken with professional assistance.

• Create a modern exterior with multi-angle roofs
• Rearrange the kitchen to feature a corner sink
• Build on a slab, replace corner porches with patios
• Enclose either corner porch to create a 3-season room
• Add a second floor with at least 2 bedrooms and a bath

For this plan, the following are included with orders for Construction Prints and CAD Files:

• Schematic Site Plan
• Daylight Basement Plan
• Floor Plan with attached garage
• Exterior Elevations
• Building Section
• Kitchen Elevations
• Typical Wall Detail
• Schematic Electrical
• Schematic Framing Plans
• Custom Energy Specs

Carter and Sally sent many photos right after they moved in. Almost half of the labor they did themselves.

"Here are some photos of our new house. We are very pleased with how it turned out!
The passive solar design is working great. It's been sunny here for the past week and we haven't needed to run the furnace (even though it gets down to the teens at night)!

We used R60 insulation in the attic and 5/8" sheetrock underneath the wood on the ceilings. The envelope is tight with limited penetration. So far the passive solar design is working as expected. We have yet to experience the -20 degree sunless days but we're hopeful we'll be in good shape."