Thank you for the quick response, m3459. What are your thoughts on window colors? We are using Jeld-Win vinyl, which we chose in order to get more color options. They have a desert sand or a much darker chestnut bronze. Or we could stick with black or just go with white. The Paulina house looks like it has taupe windows, but the architects aren't able to verify...

I can't help with the design but I think you are on the right track—it looks like a great home.We live near Chicago and our living room has 2 windows 8x7 feet and a sliding door 12x7. We recently replaced them with units made by Marvin Windows and they are very tight and snug in the winter. Our utility bill is not sky high. They are an immense improvement (aesthetically and efficiency-wise) over the 1970 aluminum sliding doors made by a shower door company that were originally installed. When they were closed you could stick your fingers through the gaps.

we have friends in Colona, WI, in a family cabin of 50+yrs. installed vinyl plank flooring this summer. not winterized at all. no heat. little insulation. compketely shut down in winter. anxious to see how the flooring made it thru winter. we wil have extensive insulation, double pane windows, but no heat in winter unless we r there or it is rented. have consideted painted concrete. laminate. vinyl. anything but carpet. have large area rugs. there are several summer-only cabins in that area (Lake Arbutys), so there has to be someone in our situation who can advise.

I don't know how far you've gotten yet but you a perfect opportunity to build a very energy efficient house. Do a little home work about "thermal bridging" and you'll learn that wood is a fantastic medium to conduct heat and cold. So without a long explanation you should think about installing 1 to 1-1/2 of rigid foam insulation on the outside of the plywood. ( 2-3 or more if you are using 2x6 framing....difficult to explain quickly but it has to do with the dew point of the inside of the wall and condensation of water vapor from the inside of the house getting into the wall cavity) Then install a rain screen which is basically thin vertical strips of wood to which the siding ( Hardie is great) is attached to. Any water that gets behind the Hardie drains down. The window and door trim must be extended to make up for the increased thickness of the wall. Of course you still insulate on the inside of the house. Hi dense pack cellulose is great here or open cell sprayed foam. By the way fiberglass is really useless. So if you have a 2x4 wall frame ( that's 3.5 inch x R4 per inch ( dense pack cellulose) you will have a R-14 wall. If you add 1.5 rigid foam ( at R6 per inch) you will add R-9. This will bring you up to a R-23 wall! Plus you'll get rid of the thermal bridging. You can do the math if you build with 2x6 (5.5") and 3" of foam on the outside. Also the air sealing provided by the foam, will significantly reduce the amount of air that infiltrates into the house. All this said, I've done a good few homes like this as retrofits ( I'm primarily a renovation contrcator) and we've looked a few bills before and after construction ( calculating in the degree days ...how cold was it in a cumulative way) and found that all of the work was paid for in a 3-5 year period. Usually we were cutting the fuel bills in half or better. So think about it. You can fine much more info in the "The Journal of Light Construction", Fine Home Building, and more. I have a few posts on my blog that explains it in a bit more depth. Good luck.