Alison0704 - I agree, the top right window doesn't look right. if it's deleted will the space look like its missing something? Nini804 - I want it to look more symmetrical as well Renovator 8 - I appreciate your comments and am sorry that my postings seem so disorganize. I was posting as I got new drawings and can't seem to get more than one picture at a time in a posting. Will get rid of the brick ledge and use just one siding element. Am hoping the next drawing will open up the front a bit. Annie Deighnaugh -I think the overhang is a detail over the garage doors. Circuspeanut- I hope that the rooflines will not be staggered! I am assuming it looks like this now because it is just a sketch . An update - I spoke with the architect today. I suggested we pull the garage more to the right and have just a corner of it attach to the house. He agreed that that might help to place windows in a more symmetrical fashion. He was going to try to have something back to me today, but I didn't get anything yet. Thanks for all your helpful comments!

SIPs are a good fast way of constructing a tight house. however shipping costs can really add up, and contractors sometimes do not like to quote them any cheaper to accommodate reduced labor charges if they do not have much experience. Another option might be ICF construction as well. Storms, tornadoes, and energy efficient house would be big pros for ICF. However if you want to stick with stick framing, you can use wet spray or dense packed cellulose in your walls instead of spray or batts. Spray foam is very expensive way to insulate, and rarely has a pay off to it. Cellulose on the other hand, as you know is much greener and healthier, denser then batts so it aids in both sound reduction and air infiltration reduction. You can take it to the next level and install a rain screen details 1" (min) exterior XPS foam on the outside of the studs to create a thermal break on the studs. It will also greatly reduce air and moisture infiltration. Caulking is your friend. It is the single cheapest way to greatly enhance the performance of your house. If building with ICF, its very easy to get a tightly sealed and strong house. Framing you have a lot of individual pieces and each one needs to be thought of. Any joint between 2 materials (such as a stud and a sill plate, or stud and the osb) can leak air. Air infiltration is your #1 thing to prevent, then followed by insulation. Caulk all joints, everywhere as possible. Cellulose and exterior insulation will give you the best bang for buck when compared to foams and other methods if you do not want to pursue SIPs or ICF. 2x6 framing is the way you want to go, especially with 10' high walls. It will be more rigid and stronger. you can consider going 24" oc spacing as well for more energy efficiency. True advanced framing methods use 24" spacing, only osb or bracing at shear locations, single top plates, 2 stud corners, etc. However I still like to use osb on the exterior with the foam and double top plates. metals roofs have other advantages besides helping with energy costs. Also note lighter roofs are effective, darker ones are on much better then shingles. They are stronger and last a lot longer with next to 0 maintenance. It just depends on how long you wish to live in this house. One thing I recommend is checking into geothermal. With current tax rebates until 2015, It would not surprise me if the geo system costs nearly the same as a high SEER HP. I know on the house I am designing the geo system costs $14k after rebates and high SEER HP is $12500. No brainer if you ask me. Another plus is you do not have any noisy condenser or units sitting outside. Designing and implementing efficient construction is a big juggle of the best products to use where. There is some overlap, but people have various opinions. Some people add things for pure payoff in mind. Some people add things realizing they may not see a pay off, but its "greener". For example you can go with a geo system and cut costs other places such as shingle roof and eliminate the exterior foam. What this does is actually make your payback of the geo faster, but that is because your house shell is less efficient.

Hi everyone, Thanks for the responses. It's been more than four months since my original query so I thought I'd post an update. After talking with several other contractors and vendors, we decided that going with replacement windows was clearly the wrong choice, so we switched contractors to someone with more large-scale remodeling experience and went with new construction windows. In the end we chose Anderson 400s and used Azek trim on the outside. The old windows came out and we found some damage to the underlying sheathing and framing, but not too much. The new windows were installed and insulated properly and the difference is huge. While we were at it we also replaced most of the edge and corner trim and drip caps on the house as this was rotting off as well. The project is taking a lot longer (we're hopefully wrapping up this week) and is costing a lot more than we thought, but I'm glad we caught this when we did as the damage would have been a lot worse if we had waited. Interestingly, the cost of the new construction windows was actually less than the replacement windows. The labor was more, of course, but we were already being forced to replace the rotting exterior trim so that was all equal. We did have to replace the interior trim, which was not inexpensive, but in the end the project wound up costing the same because the windows were less expensive. The difference in the new trim is amazing- it's nice to have real window sills and stools, with a less generic casing around them. The question of new windows vs. restoration was never an issue- the old windows (only 18 years old) were of poor quality, poorly installed, and leaked cold air to the point that we had to install plastic sheeting over the openings in the winter. Also, many of the window sills, mullions, and jams were rotting, so the amount of work to restore the existing windows would have been huge, We were going with new windows one way or the other. Thanks again for your help, Josh

Why not hire your own independent inspector? You might have to open up or tear up some areas, at your expense, for a complete inspection. You can then present that report to the builder and if they don't take any action, you can then have a lawyer present them with the same report. I have friends who recently bought a 2-story home. The floor joists on the second floor were messed up and there were several misguided attempts at patching it up. They got an inspection and the builder finally agreed to take up all the wood flooring upstairs, fix the issues and lay new flooring. Of course this took several months while they were living there. They even got the builder to pay for reputable movers (they had expensive antiques) and storage while the repairs were being done.