Time to Design

Well, now that the finances have been sorted out, it's time to start looking at the house design.
Now, I'm doing a carpentry diploma at community college, so you might well think that the best way to go ahead would be a timber frame (2 by 6) with loads of insulation, but oh no. What we want is a building with a High Thermal Mass, which will need masonry walls on a slab at grade.

Done lots of research on the internet and found an excellent site The Natural Home . After reading all the info on site, we sent off for the initial consultation package which includes example blueprints and instructions on how to go about building the house YOU want.

So, looking at hopefully a 30' by 50' house on a well insulated slab built using concrete blocks dry stacked with surface bonding cement holding the walls together. Our potential site is well situated, with an already prepared flat plot facing due south so perfect for passive solar.

Looking forward to getting the graph paper out and working on room layouts. We'll post some examples as we try them.