The first, of course, is WHY use Insulated Concrete Forms for our new house instead of regular "stick" construction.

We really want to put in a Geothermal System for heating & cooling BUT they are just too damned expensive. For now. I have a Digger and figure sometime down the road I can do most of the digging and such and add a Geothermal system myself. With a little help. We will be putting in Radiant Heating. Unfortunately we'll have to use a gas fired boiler until I can get the Geothermal system in. Our Architect suggests that we really don't want to put the pex tubing IN the slab either. Worried about leaks down the years. And I can agree with that. So we'll probably put the pex tubing for the radiant heating system just under the 'floor.'

Speaking of pex tubing; I'm seriously considering using pex tubing for the hot/cold water supply throughout the house. I think it'll be more flexible in case of an earthquake (which we have up here also) and be easier to replace/repair in case a leak does spring up. Y'all got any ideas on this?

We'll have LOTS of windows on the South-facing side of the house (the angled part) so our floors can soak up some of that solar heat in the winter (when the sun is lower in the sky), but the roof will overhang the windows just enough that it'll be shaded in the summer (when the sun is higher in the sky).

I really wanted to "earth shelter" or "berm" the house, BUT, Mason County has had no experience with anyone doing that and absolutely FREAKED when I mentioned that I was planning to do that with the dome we were trying to build. They wanted (required!) tons more paperwork and engineering and wanted special inspectors onsite every day (EXPENSIVE!). We've pretty much given up the idea with this house until the Mason County Building Dept gets someone that actually knows something.

I'm going to hardwire the house with cable and RJ45 connectors for our network even though we're probably going as wireless as we can. I like the wireless router we have BUT it doesn't reach every place in the house we're in. I'm having a special place made for our server, NAT/S(?) and the "master" phone and I want to be sure we have the connectivity we need. Seriously considering a voice system (HAL 9000).

Eventually, after I win $150 Million in the lotto, I'd like to put in Solar Panels for electrical production and get as off the grid as I can. Unfortunately, living in Washington state, the expense and "payback" for such a system makes it impractical for us. A decent system would cost us about $75,000 and the "payback" would be 300+ years! That's with today's technology. There are things in the works though that will bring the cost of these systems WAY down. (I still believe that IF the government was smart they'd subsidize Geothermal & Solar for the average home to be retrofitted with these technologies. And any new construction of course.)