It has been several years since I had a project with IFC blocks, but I found working with the manufacturer was helpful. The benefit of sizing a space to its function may be greater than sizing it to the construction material.

Do you have a copy of your building code book?

Yes, it's good to work with the module of the blocks. It is very important to make your footing very level, as you can't cheat like you can with block or concrete. Read the installation instructions. Plan any penetrations for sewer, electrical or whatever and pre-install sleeves.

And plan larger and more penetrations than you think you need. Ask me how I know.

Mr. Bischak, I haven't been able to locate a building code book yet, anybody I've spoken to has stated that our county doesn't have one. I'll go ahead and call Land Use tomorrow. In regards to the sizing, I BELIEVE that my dimensions can be flexed in or out by a few feet but if I knew everything, I wouldn't be here.

Seabornman - I assume your recommendation would be to let a professional do that initial foundation rather than myself?

just_janni - I was thinking of just two as everything would be routed up from the crawlspace, however based on the nightmarish though of drilling through concrete, I think I might add a few more.

I'm attaching my simple layout, I'll attempt to describe and include dimensions but I don't think I'll remember to include all of my thoughts. Just to explain my thoughts on placement, to the west of this layout is the mountains, and naturally sunsets. To the south of my property are some neighbors that aren't exactly..... copacetic to my aesthetic preference and naturally, I don't want to see them. I plan to attach a garage down the road to the East of Room 5.

Room 1 - Essentially thought to be a large space; incorporating living room, dining room, and kitchen. Measurements are currently 24'X40'. I'm positive I'll have to have a support somewhere in there due to the sheer size, I'd like to shy away from a wall smack dab in the middle if possible, not sure what other options there are. Kitchen is currently thought to be North.

Room 2 - Full Bathroom - sized 8'x8'

Room 3 - Utility room 8'x11.5' - Based on my location, it's less feasible to run power lines to my property. I intend to have solar power, having the base in here in combination with washer and dryer. Another point that I lack the knowledge in is hydronic radiant floor heating. I intend to have an outdoor boiler set up to run off wood, with a backup inside the house, likely in the utility room. I'm unsure if it would be better to have something like a tankless water heater to heat household water rather than running the floor and household water through the same system.

Room 4 & 5 - Bedrooms - 11'9.75"x12' for the main area. They're exactly mirrors of each other

Please feel free to pick it apart, pointing out problems and giving thoughts. I'm working with 45 acres undeveloped, so plenty of flexibility at this time.

Thank you all

I'm no expert, but if you are in a cold climate, do you really want to stick your bathroom (and water pipes) out into the elements?

I don't know how much of this you plan to do yourself. It would be great if you could find someone to do the footings and foundation walls as it's what everything is built on.

chispa - It's definitely a concern of mine as well, my theory (just a theory as I'm no expert either) is to have the plumbing coming through the floor rather than the walls, that way it's more protected by the ICF. The south side and potentially east side would be covered by my garage in the (hopefully) near future.

seabornman - honestly, it's my intention to do MOST of it by myself. I've done a little bit of building, just not enough to go willy nilly by myself. I've got my grandfather and my ex-wife's father who used to do construction, concrete and framing helping me with the planning too. The footing and foundation is honestly where I've been most nervous because of the whole - I screw it up, the rest is pretty screwed too.

Something I forgot to mention with the floor plan - I'd like to do a vaulted ceiling in the "great room" if you will and transition back to 8' ceilings for the other rooms. Not sure how feasible this is or how to do it.

I think you will benefit greatly by having a local architect involved in your project to answer your technical questions and provide good design advice.

How big is your property? Why are you orienting your house in the worst possible direction? Ideally you want to orient the house so the longest expanse faces north/south, not east/west like you have it. Covering the south side with the garage is the worst thing you can do.

I suggest you start by reading up on passive solar heating and cooling

For DIY, I think CMU's (cinderblocks) are the best option for foundation walls.

I compared ICF's to CMU's to regular poured concrete foundation walls, and ended up doing the latter.

I was sold on ICF's until I got into the details, and pricing.

Do a decent job on your footings, and take your time with laying blocks, you'll probably need a pilaster on your 40' walls. Then, after everything before backfill, put up a double layer of 1" EPS foam board interior and exterior for overlapping seams for 4" total, R~20.

It's hard to screw up, and you might even enjoy doing it.

Give it a thought if you haven't yet, price it out.

What is the exterior going to look like? Where will the front door be? Windows, garage, etc? Why are there no closets shown that will cut into the square footage? Honestly, the single wide trailer we have on our farm is laid out better than this. You definitely need some help to get this right.

A square bathroom is not the most efficient for layout, either. For 64 square feet, a 5'6" x 11' bathroom will make the best use of space as it'll allow a 32" tub, 60" vanity, and 40" for toilet and trashcan area.

Building codes are national, and adopted by all states. Even though there may not be local inspection , you are still required to build to code. You need to familiarize yourself with them, and design to them.

https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/IRC2018

That design needs alteration on multiple fronts. It’s about the worst design physically possible for solar power, or passive solar. There’s just not a lot that's actually savable in it. Start over.

https://www.houzz.com/user/colten-murphy9

Following...

We built an ICF house, using the quad lock blocks, you can go to my page, idea books, New Build/Gabe for some photos..

https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/107080130/list/new-build-gabe

Hello all, imagine my surprise this morning when I woke up with quite a few notifications! I appreciate everybody's input, whether I like it or not. Naturally, I've found a couple things already that I prefer over the previous design!

cpartist - My property is 45 acres, my original orientation was due to sunsets on the mountains as well as blocking sight of blight directly south of my property. Thinking about it, I've reoriented based on some of the reading I've found on the passive heating and cooling as well as switching the location of the garage.

Matt M - The pricing of the ICF is definitely not nice in any shape way or form. I actually didn't think of using cinderblocks with 1" foam to insulate. One way or another, I think I'm going to put the comparison those different methods on the top of the list.

shead - I'm not entirely sure on the color at the moment, I love the look of engineered wood siding. I'm trying to stay away from vinyl because in my personal view, it's too town-homey and that's not my objective. Another thought I've had is the rock partially up the side of the house but honestly I'm garbage at making things match aesthetically and not sure if anything would work well together. I'm also not entirely sure on placement of windows but I do know that it can't be without them. Based partially on the passive heating aspect, I was figuring probably 4 larger windows on the South side. Likely one window in each bedroom and the dining room having a wall of windows/one large one. Your typical kitchen sink window is likely, a sliding door or door with large glass window connected to the south side of the kitchen so that eventually, it'll walk out to a porch facing west. I've included the front door location on my adjusted design. I looked into the rectangular bathroom and found that I liked many of the recommendations for layouts better than the square ones, I've adjusted that accordingly.

live_wire_oak - I greatly appreciate the link, I'll peruse it tonight and tomorrow. With the poor county I live in, nobody seems to like having concrete information. Whilst I didn't much appreciate the blunt statement of "Start over."; I'm constantly adjusting layouts and redrawing things, all in an attempt to find the best one for my "forever home". If I knew everything, I wouldn't be here. I don't know everything to take into account yet, I'm young and out of my regular element of law enforcement and EMS. I've adjusted a couple things in this layout, it's not my only one, just my most preferred right now.

Cheryl Hannelbauer - Wow! Are all the walls built using them? I'm going to look through them a little more thoroughly, I love the way some things are designed but I think most of all, I like the wood on the ceiling vs drywall. I might have to steal that thought if I can figure out how everything matches up.

I'm attaching the adjusted layout, I've mostly just shortened the "great room" and put the dining room off the north side. I've also made the bathroom a rectangle. I've dropped in small black squares to show likely add ons in the future.

Room 1 - Living Room/Kitchen (24x24)

Room 2 - Bathroom - 6x12

Room 3 - Dining Room (~11.5'x~13.5')

Room 4 - Master bed/bath

Room 5 - Bonus room-connected to garage

What this keeps showing us is you really don't know what you don't know. It shows you do not have a design background.

I'm sorry but this is as poorly laid out as your other layout and you can't think of a house in tetris boxes that you move around. Before you go further, you need to read a lot more. And in reality, you really need someone with some design skills.

To properly design a house, one must think in 3D so that floor plans, elevations and how it is sited on the lot all work together at the same time. If you change the floor plan, it changes the elevation which changes how it works on the land.

1. No one wants a bathroom you can see into from the kitchen/living area. Yuck

2. Yes you got it better sited with the living room south, but you also have it sited west which is the absolute worst orientation. Especially in a fairly warm climate like OK.

3. No one wants to hear the dulcet sounds of a toilet flushing while eating.

4. No one wants guests looking into their master bedroom bathroom and you don't want your bedroom getting that harsh afternoon sun heating up your space into the evening,

5. Where in the space are you planning the kitchen?

6. What is the space to the right of the living/kitchen with the pocket door?

7. What are the 2 spaces to the right? Bedrooms? That look out onto the kitchen living room too?

Colten, there are forums that better appreciate the do-it-yourself design/builder. One is at https://countryplans.com/smf/index.php . Good luck on your project!

Bad design doesn’t get better by having more un knowledgeable people coo over it. A simplistic structure like that should be the worlds easiest thing to design. There are millions of plain rectangular ranch houses to copy. Yes, they’re mostly plain. But that’s a bonus. Tetris design is not wholistic. And design has to be wholistic.

Orientation and window placement are linked. Window placement inside and out are linked. Window placement inside is linked to views outside. Which turns the circle again and is linked to site orientation and placement. There no single thing you can pull out that doesn’t relate to everything.

When someone can’t design a decent basic cabin structure, it shows how unlinked their mind is to seeing in 3D, and proportion. And how lacking they are in visualization of the consequences of Tetris design. But that’s OK. Because there are professionals that do just that. They make things work harder and better, and still look good.

Edited: Corrected fumble fingers combined with Siri’s predictive text.

cpartist - And what this keeps showing me is that you don't have a communications background. I've stated multiple times if I can read and type correctly that I don't know it all. I only know a small portion. How about you come to something that's my forte and see how you feel when I basically tell you that you're an idiot?

Currently, maybe I don't have the right train of thoughts on it. But it's definitely not tetris. Yes, I'm rearranging things. However, I'm learning things at the same time. Things that work well with one another and things that don't.

I'm not entirely sure how changing the floor plan changes the elevation honestly.

In regards to your numbers: I could concur with #1, didn't think of that. How would it be connected to the rest of the house without being an outhouse then? My first thought would be a hallway and that could connect to bedrooms as well. The kitchen is on the west side of the room, living room on the east. I'm not sure why it being sited west is the "absolute worst", could you elaborate? I live in southern Colorado, the highest avg temperature being about 80 degrees and typically having snowfall potential about 7 or 8 months out of the year. the space to the right of the living room is the utility room and originally the pantry but I think that's too far from the kitchen for the pantry. Yes, the two spaces further right are bedrooms, I guess I'm not entirely sure what's wrong with a bedroom that could look into the living room. They've got a door that's capable of being closed for a reason?

seabornman - I greatly appreciate the support, I'll check out that site. I'm a glutton for being told I'm completely off the mark for some reason. I'm learning plenty of things so far even if it's not informed to me in a very nice manner. I'm sure there'll be plenty of back and forth so feel free to pop back in!

live_wire_oak - If I wanted somebody to coo over something, I'd find my mother. I'm no professional designer. I don't want a "plain" house, I want one that's my own. A predesigned plan takes away from that. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what Jews have to do with anything, the rest of your paragraph is hard to understand from my perspective. I assume your last paragraph is hinting at getting together with an architect?

"Window placement inside is linked to Jews outside."

Am I missing something?

I second the motion to using an architect.

Ah! That would make sense.

Not to continue dumping on you, but look at all the wasted space in the bedrooms. Those hallways can't be used for closets or furniture, so they aren't an efficient use of space. It's these types of design flaws that are making people think you might want/need a pros opinion.

West-facing rooms will heat up terribly in the afternoons. Even in Colorado, west windows will create a greenhouse effect and warm up the house.

What is your vision for the exterior (farmhouse, ranch, modern, barndominium, etc.)?

Your interior and exterior elements have to be cohesive for anything to be attractive. And while I get wanting to make something your “own”, there is often no reason to reinvent the wheel, either.

Funny how a few misplace letters can have such an effect.

Tomorrow I am getting a sandwich from the Bread Basket Deli.

hahaha! READ before you hit "send"!!!

autocomplete? Autocorrect? Suspect you meant "Submit".

Leslie NE. Florida coast, zone 9A - I don't take it as anybody dumping on me, there's just plenty I don't have knowledge of! I completely agree that the little hallway going in is a waste of space, there's no need for it! I know one way or another, I can't rely on my square and rectangle placing to build the house for me. Absolutely need a professional opinion/help, I just hoped to have an idea going into it. I'll head back to the idea board!

shead - I like a ranch style exterior! I just have no clue on cohesiveness as I like a modern kitchen style. I hope I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel, I'll step back a bit and see what can come of going back to basics.

All in all, I think I should take that step and contact somebody that gets paid for these designs! As I haven't found anybody that appears to be...reputable, does anybody have any recommendations online? Any specific things I should look for?

Look for a local architect that has designed homes in the past that you like and you feel you can work well with them. Find one that is willing explain the process and the construction. I think you will enjoy the process. Best of luck.

" I just hoped to have an idea going into it. I'll head back to the idea board!"

The problem with this is you become invested in what you are drawing and then when you do get an architect involved you may have a) handcuffed him with your plan or b) become so attached to your plan that nothing he draws will seem like a good plan to you. A bubble diagram and a comprehensive list of your wants and needs as well as maybe some inspiration pictures should be all you would need.

Siri predicts some odd things sometimes when fat finger typos are involved. I fixed it, but there’s no guarantee that worse won’t happen at any point in time...

It did add to the entertainment value of the thread.

Start looking at plans on plan sites for inspiration, both interior and exterior and see how important it is to minimize hallways and wasted space. See how the exterior shape creates and guides the roofline. See how simplicity can be beautiful or boring and that you can have a simple "box" that is designed outside the box with porches, decks, and other "structures" that hide it's humble shape. or embrace it - with a shed roof design and modern elements, etc.

I would highly recommend you start there, and then tweak it.