I write about what I've learned designing and building homes — the things that work, the things that are misunderstood, and the questions worth asking before you build. These aren't abstractions. They come from a house I designed for my own family and live in every day.
Most homeowners specify an insulation level and call it done. Air sealing is the part nobody talks about — and the part that actually determines whether your house is comfortable. In my home, the floor and ceiling temperatures in winter are nearly identical. That doesn't happen by accident.
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Years of daily feedback from nine full-time occupants. Here are the decisions I'd make again without hesitation — and why they worked. The reasoning matters more than the list, because reasoning is what transfers to a different project on a different piece of land for a different family.
The American habit is to turn the heat down at night and let it recover in the morning. Properly sized heat pumps don't work that way. Here's why a heat pump running continuously at a modest output is more efficient than one cycling hard to recover from a temperature setback, and why the unit size determines whether recovery is even possible.
Some decisions produce clear answers quickly. Others don't. This entry covers the choices where years of living in my home hasn't settled the question — where I'd still be genuinely uncertain if I were starting over, and where the right answer depends more on what a particular family values than on any objective measure of performance.
Most solar quotes are sized for average daily production in good conditions. They're not sized for January, which is the month that determines whether your system works. Here's how to think about the number that actually matters.
Thirteen years building systems for a living taught me how to think about complexity, manage stakeholder expectations, and make decisions that age well. Those skills transfer more directly to residential design than I expected — and in some ways they're more valuable here, because you only get one shot.
I listed what I did right in another entry. This one is harder to write and more valuable to read. These are the mistakes that cost real money, real time, or that I still live with every day — and the reasoning behind why each one happened. That reasoning is what will prevent the same mistake on a your project.
In many homes, there is one room that sits largely unused and one space the owners wish they had. After seeing both patterns enough times, I've started keeping a list. This is that list.
I've had discovery conversations with clients who showed up with a bunch of Pinterest and Houzz screenshots and no idea what their budget was. And I've had clients who arrived with nothing but had thought deeply about how their family actually lives. One of those conversations produces a better home.
Stock house plans from the internet cost a few hundred to a few thousand dollars and look like a bargain next to custom design fees. Sometimes they are a reasonable choice. Often they create problems that cost far more than the custom design would have. Here's how to think about which situation you're actually in — and what you're actually getting in each case.
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I write about what I've learned from designing and building my own family's off-grid home on 40 acres outside Spring City, Utah — and from the work I do with clients. I don't have opinions about home design from a distance. I live in the house I built, and I notice every day what works and what I would have done differently.
These entries are for people who are thinking seriously about building — who want to understand not just what to choose, but why the decision matters, and what happens when you get it wrong.