kymike1-I feel your pain. We were in your shoes a little over a year ago. We're making the final changes to our new plan now. I can't help you with a particular plan-they're just too many to look through, but remember, you can adjust the majority of plans to meet your criteria. Just because the plan shows a full walkout basement across the back of the house doesn't mean it can't be reworked to allow for a side walkout. Many Gardner plans would fit that bill as he does alot of plans with basements. The question then becomes, do you & your spouse like Gardner's style?

Here are some other sites that may help (FYI-Mascord has a whole section on "efficient living" homes):

www.mascord.com
www.thehousedesigners.com
www.garrellassociates.com
www.coolhouseplans.com

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the links. I'll take a look at them this weekend.

I am still trying to get some passive solar benefit. The challenge we have is that the side of our house facing the street is the west side. We want windows on the north and south as the solar benefit is to the south and the best views are to the north. A tough combination. We have even thought that since we will sit back quite a ways from the street, we could just have the front entrance on the south (not street) side and plant trees to obscure the house from the street. That way, we wouldn't look too unusual by having an entrance that didn't face the street.

Have you tried Sunplans.com? All of her plans are passive solar.

We have exactly the same exposures on our land. Although the side of the house that will face the street is the south side, the 'front' of the house will face west, due to the way the driveway comes in. In our case, the only two options for an attached garage are either on the south, uphill side, or on the north, downhill side. If we put it on the north side, it will be at the basement level, which will both obscure the walk-out benefit of windows in the basement, and require walking up stairs to get into the house. So for us, the garage has to go on the south side of the house.

In your case, the garage on the south will make solar gain tougher. We are building in SC, so solar gain is to be avoided in most cases, but we are planning solar hot water. Depending upon the slope of your land, and your budget, the garage could go on the east or west side, even to the extent of having basement under the garage- it is done.

I spent a LOT of time trying to come up with a design to fit our land, and take advantage of the view. Waterfront designs came the closest, and I created my own design based on a number of plans I saw online. The toughest thing for me is that we want a small house (less than 1200 sq ft) that 'lives large'. I don't know how much space you 'need', but the fastest way to a green home is to first design it smaller, and use the very best current insulation and construction methods before worrying about alternate energy. Doing that will make the passive solar all the more effective. With all of the technology available, I'm amazed to see people still building single-wall, stick-framed homes without even a layer of foam over the sheathing to block heat transfer through the framing. If you want to see what's going on today, start with greenbuildingtalk.com.

I know I haven't been much help on a design or floor plan; you'll just have to keep searching, as only you know what your wants and needs are. There are a lot of things to consider- How many people will live there? Do you entertain large groups? Do you have specific needs, such as an office or music room? Is it likely that someone who lives there may be disabled, and require handicap access? There are tens of thousands of house plans that you can preview for free online. Once you find ideas you like, post sketches; there are some people on here that are very good at tweaking designs!

Looked through the wesites suggested above over the weekend. Nothing stood out. We are continuing to look. Additional suggestions are welcome.

We found several plans we liked on this site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Architectural House Plans