We are anxiously awaiting March 11th. That is the date when the Williston Development Review Board will decide whether we can proceed with our plans to build this summer. We are nervous because only a finite number of projects are approved each year. If we had purchased land outright, we would not have to go through this approval process; this is the result of the fact that Ryan's parents are technically 'subdividing' their land in order to gift us a small part (**THANK YOU!!!**). Thus, we are pushed into the same approval process required of developers. But we're keeping our fingers crossed and trying to stay optimistic. We'd really like to build our new house this summer!
One important looming decision is our wall system. We were initially planning on an ICF basement and SIP walls. But the more we've learned about ICFs and their incredible energy saving properties, the more we've found ourselves leaning towards building a full ICF house. The only stumbling block will be cost. As soon as we learn when we can break ground, we'll finalize the blueprints and get quotes on both ICFs and SIPs to see how well they compare.
Here are some interesting links to other people's blogs where they discuss their decision to go with ICFs. Modern in MN's blog explains their decision to go the ICF route. (Scroll down to the January 11, 2005 post). This Custom Home blog also does a great job of detailing all of the benefits to ICFs.
Threads on the Green Building Talk forum constantly revisit the ICFs vs. SIPs debate and there are ardent supporters in both camps. I have learned a lot from this site.
We'll keep our own blog updated on the events of March 11th as well as our thoughts on ICFs vs. SIPs.
