When building a home, should you go for highest efficiency, or is it worth the added expense?

Worth the added expense. To me a home must be as simple as possible, easy to take care of and to clean. bed rooms and a wide living room is all I need. Make sure it can not be reached by earthquake and flood. LIVE SIMPLE AND SAVE!!!

This is what I was thinking, going with the foam concrete walls, completely seal room, then I control the living conditions of the completely sealed environment. I want to go with geothermal heating and cooling, solar heated pool, and other efficient tech I can use in the home.

Snds good and durable

Well how much is the inhabitants of the residents worth to you? Do you want to give someone a life long home? A starter home? A Project home you can tweek here and there over the years? Personally I would give it my best, my all. Because I know when I have a finished project, my most favorite thing in the world to do is be able to claim it, to put my name by it. I wouldn’t want to assign my name to something I wasn’t proud of. My father always said, “if you are going to do something, you minds well do it right the first time”, haha.

Also, Make sure you lay your drywall (if used) the right way, its a common mistake that ends up making things difficult, plus waste. Also womanized lumber if there is to be a basement to help inhibit black mold. But by the sounds of it, if you are building a house you know what you are doing ^_^

Well this is the home I will retire in, maybe.

Well in Texas we don’t have a need for a basement, but on the outside of the home I was going to use brick and then break that up with stone work to add contrast. The center of the walls I want to use foam concrete forms, then on the inside very little drywall, I would say that the drywall would be up high, out of reach from people touching it, I would use wood on most of the walls inside. I want to computerize the house, as well as use things like geothermal cooling and heating, solar lighting, solar water heating, solar and wind power “wind only if plausible”. This is what I think I want and I am going to work it out till I think I can get it right.