Resource efficiency is a major part of building green. Plans are implemented to reduce the quantity of materials needed to build a house and also how much waste is generated from its construction.  Steps are taken to ensure the durability of the structure and components.  Recycled and renewable content materials are identified and specified. Recycling plans are implemented for onsite waste and for construction demolition.  You'd be surprised to find out that sheetrock waste is a good soil additive.  Also the way a home is designed can have a huge effect on the amount of waste generated by its construction.  I have always been a believer in efficient use of framing materials, and have designed my homes accordingly for years.  Lumber comes in two-foot increments so your overall home dimensions at two-foot intervals promote more efficient construction.  Production builders use these techniques daily, along with pre-built trusses for roofs and floors, and also pre-framed wall panels.

During this time I set about deciding on a design for the home. I had a nice home now, but I could use more garage space, and we could use a fourth bedroom for parents or visitors. Both our cars fit in the garage okay but not my small truck or the fishing boat, and those kids toys get in the way too. I wanted a classic efficient structure, with a large garage area, and settled on a square two story plan with parking underneath and attic storage above.  The Mrs. wanted a stairway to the attic so I don't have to go up the pull down stair for her every time, so we did that.  I do lots of houses with stairs to the attic for others.  I've done some elevators too, and since they are really quite reasonable these days I opted for one also.  It's good to get the groceries up from underneath and you never know how your knees and stuff are going to be when you get older.  I mean for those who want to stay in their home forever, I think it's a good investment.  And by making a more efficient footprint and plan it's really not that expensive a tradeoff at all.  So I've got 1700 sf on the main floor, a little more upstairs, and 1700 sf of parking storage underneath which is good for the boat, a tractor, some cars, etc. In my green classes I learned that sealing your insulation in a confined space makes it much more efficient.  It mostly works that way for walls anyway, but in my home the under the floor area had to be covered with fire-rated sheetrock anyway and as a bonus that seals up the insulation under there in a box.  Should really help me on the path to green.  During design I priced several ways to carry the loading.  Usually I use floor trusses and they work great.  Also they provide space to run the ductwork inside for basement levels. They are usually a little more expensive, and with the beam loading I was using it just wasn't working for me. Lumber is really cheap right now, while trusses are less so, and I wasn't finishing underneath, so I went with 2x10's, steel beams on the center spans, and laminated beams around the exterior.  I plan to run the ductwork on the inside of the joists and seal it up underneath with the sheetrock. My rater said it would be a fine idea and give me good numbers.

Main floor	Upper floor	Lower level parking

When designing a house it's a good idea to work on a 2' grid for the outer dimensions because that's how they sell the lumber.  Houses that are more rectangular without jogs in and out are usually more efficient in terms of floor plans, but usually you can't limit yourself that way all the time.  When you study the old classics they lend themselves to this efficient use of materials, so I thought that a good classic design would be a good start.  I was able to come up with a relatively efficient 44'x44' square box.  I needed a little less downstairs so I cut a 8x30 box out of the rear for a porch, and added another on the front for a classic look.  The roof worked out as a square hip with a large cupola for ventilation.  I went with 10' ceilings on the main level and 9' upstairs. If you are working with traditional shapes and design there is a great book by Steven Mouzon called Traditional Construction Patterns, that is sort of the bible in this area of traditional design.  It helps you with the shape of the dormers, column details and stuff like that.  Anyway, in the center of the home I placed the stairways and elevator and HVAC closets and around it the rooms. Looks like it's going to work well for my needs.  When placing the home on the site I originally was going to face the road, but that was the western exposure, a really bad place to put a lot of windows.  After thinking about my site a little more I found that by rotating the house to face north-south I got better views of the pond, the front of my home is approached by the driveway, and my garage doors are on the lowest elevation of the lot.  You can't do this on every lot I guess, but my HVAC man says I saved a lot of heating load by putting two windows on the western exposure instead of the eleven that I had on the front.

You can enhance efficiency with a couple of different Green strategies.  Engineered lumber is a good option because you can get longer spans out of them, and they are made from small growth lumber.  Trusses are great because they are engineered for no job waste, and you can run the heating, air, and other mechanicals in the open spaces provided.  I'll admit that both options cost a little more than traditional stick framing.  When you do twenty or so of the same house the costs come more in line, but I was only doing one, so it wasn't quite working for me.  I went with a combination of stick framing for economy of materials mixed with steel beams and lam beams at the exteriors to carry the loads of my design.  I like using steel because you can carry a greater weight a longer span with less depth.  You can even get the depth down to 9 1/4", the same depth as a 2x10.  My framers usually hate steel, they like lam beams better.  And most of the time with a basement and two floors you need the space of the trusses to get the HVAC in there anyway.  But this was my house and I wanted to think more than spend more so I went the  way described above.  I figured out how to make the HVAC work inside the box, not in the attic, or the unconditioned basement, and I'm real pleased with the outcome.