There are a lot of acceptable options. Fiberglass with a "smart" vapour retarder, such as MemBrain, at least in conditions resembling those in which it was initially tested, is one. Others include XPS, EPS, foil-faced polyisocyanurate, CCSPF and combinations of these with fg. Water vapour moves through concrete walls. The trick is not to trap it behind or between a polyethylene barrier. Unfortunately, you can still go on dozens of internet sites, let alone building codes, that solemnly inform you of the importance of sealing basement insulation exactly that way, or even using double vapour barriers. Here is a link that might be useful: Basement Insulation Systems

I hand drew a layout of our farm to give an attempt at a visual of the area. We bought the farm about 2 years ago. The previous owner had a fire in his home and it sadly burnt to the ground. We plan to build the home in the same setting but back into the hill a little to get the walkout basement. The driveway splits into two, a southern and a northern driveway. There is a detached garage that is southwest of the house. I'm thinking the entry into the house from there would either be through the south basement entry or the west side porch. Most often we will park in a parking area on the north side of the house since there won't be stairs to climb. A shed is on the north west side of the house and it has access doors on the west and east. We thought if we did add an attached garage years from now, it would have to be on that north side. The garden and barn are all West of the house. The kids most often are playing to the west, but they do tend to cover a lot of area so it's ideal to have windows out every direction.

I went back and forth with deciding on a walk out or not. I think the same way you do, I don't really like the look of a two story home on the backside. That being said, I really wanted big daylight windows in the basement. We went with large windows, but no walk out. We would have had to bring the grade up a bit more for a walk out and as it is, we will have to put in two retaining walls. I am not sure how much more expensive it was with the large windows, but I am sure it was more than smaller windows and the extra expense of the excavation. I thought about what we would be walking out to and that is a woodsy area on our 7 acres. It is nothing special and since most of our living space on the property is on the other side, it didn't seem to make sense to put the walk out in. We do have the large, two story look on the back side, but we have made that look shorter by siding choices. We put a cedar shake on the top section, then followed with straight siding. You can see photos of it here. Good luck with your decision. It is one of many you will be going through. Here is a link that might be useful: My house building blog

valve stem seats go out it starts with I cant turn my water all the way off then a drippy drop then a patter then a rainhead effect then finally a stream 24/7 valve stem seats fail when the screw and rubber washer fail and usually the oring is shot too and it drips out the top at handle as well . finding parts is the trick and you want an old salty dog of a plumber