As we thought about the design of this home over the years, we came to feel that we wanted a structure that was enjoyable to live in, friendly to the environment, and energy-efficient. We spent a lot of time researching design approaches and technologies that would enable us to achieve these goals. On this page we will share sources of information about some of what we discovered, and what we continue to discover living in the house.

Insulated concrete:

After reading about and attending workshops on timber-frame and straw bale construction, we settled on insulated concrete as the material of choice for most of the lower- and middle-level exterior walls in our house. This decision was based in part on conservation of natural resources versus timber-frame, and partly for it's ability to withstand natural forces versus straw bale. We also considered other building methods, such as rammed earth, adobe and 2X6 frame building, but discarded them for similar reasons.

Here are some sources of information if you want to know more about insulated concrete construction (and whether or not we lost our minds).

• Insulating Concrete Form Association
  general information about the method
• Concrete Homes Magazine
  another source of information
• I.C.E. Block Insulating Concrete Forms
  about the product we're using
• VBuck®
  about the product we're using for door and window openings

Rainwater collection:

One of the things that concerned us about living in the Texas Hill Country was the reliability of our water supply. As more people move to this part of the country and drill wells that tap into the finite resources of our aquifers, inadequacy of our water suppy will become a major issue. Already, people are having to redrill existing wells to greater depths to find water.

In addition to supply problems, the water here is very hard and may have an unpleasant odor when the water table is low. While these problems can be taken care by expensive "better living through chemistry," it happily turns out that this is one of the best areas in the country to harvest rainwater for domestic use because of our air quality. We'll describe our specific system as we report on the various stages of its installation during our home construction. Here are some sources of general information:

• Texas Guide to Rainwater Harvesting and other information
  from The Texas Water Development Board
• Rainwater Harvesting
  a fact sheet from Austin Energy's Green Building Program
• Rainwater Collection... we wrote the book on it
  from our primary vendor, Tank Town in Dripping Springs, TX
• The WISY rainwater filters
  now the US supplier in Austin, TX. Good information on the site.

Concrete floors and countertops

Since questions keep coming up about our plans to use concrete for some of the interior surfaces of our home we decided to include information here before we actually get to these aspects of the construction.

In exploring the possibilites for the interior of our home, we became very interested in the use of stained and scored concrete for floors and cast concrete for countertops. We discovered that concrete offers incredible flexibility for color and design, as well as durability, low maintenance and low environmental impact.

The examples shown in the following websites are the best way to show you some of the possibilities for using this common material in uncommon ways:

• Interior Concrete Floors - The Concrete Network
  design possibilities for interior concrete floors
• All About Concrete Countertops - The Concrete Network
  FAQs concerning concrete countertops
• Rock Solid Studio
  Our contractor for the stained concrete floors, and concrete countertops.
• Cheng Design and Cheng Design Products
  countertops and other architectural applications of concrete
• Buddy Rhodes Studio
  countertops, furniture, tiles and other objects
• Pacassa Studios
  custom furniture and interiors
• Sonoma Cast Stone
  architectural concrete products including counters and sinks
• soupcan, inc.
  concrete countertops and sinks, and copper, zinc and steel countertops

Spaceframe

Spaceframe is a lightweight steel framing system available from Berridge Manufacturing Company in Seguin, Texas. Their CADD/CAM software allows the builder to create a 3D model of a building in a few hours, then import the design into special software that converts the 3D model into precisely detailed frame components. The software then drives a roll former that fabricates all of the frame components from rolled steel. The components are assembled quickly using rivets, then erected on the building site. No special skills are needed.

We went along on one of our builder's trips to Seguin in order to see the Berridge system in operation for ourselves. We enjoyed the brief trip and now have new appreciation for our Spaceframe walls, ceilings and floors.

This system, which is very competitive cost-wise with wood framing, has the following advantages:

• Design, fabrication and erection are much faster and require less skill than wood construction.
• Components are very strong, extremely precise and well-engineered.
• Holes are correctly placed to allow for electrical wiring.
• The steel framing is impervious to fire, termites and water damage.
• There is virtually no waste destined for a landfill.
• The steel is recyclable