Building a Model of the House

Over the last number of months, there’s been a lot of thinking, dreaming and rethinking going on. As things look now, I’m leaning towards using Cliff Shockey’s method of building walls – two walls with fiberglass insulation and a vapor barrier. I figure this is the last house we will live in, so I might as well make it as energy efficient as possible– buffering us from the coldest of winters and warmest of summers.

During the design process I have been using both a computer and a model to help design the house. One thing I have learned– most computer programs won’t draw a 16 sided house nor a 24″ thick wall. But I have found a program that does just that! I highly recommend IMSI’s FloorPlan 3D Deluxe. It builds the floor plans and gives you 3D walk-through capabilities.

But computer generated graphics aren’t enough. I decided to build a 12:1 scale model of our house. It really helps when trying to visualize what the house will look like. I made the model out of wood trim pieces that you can find at most lumber yards. They were close enough to scale for my purposes. I also made the cordwood walls out of computer generated drawings. This allowed me to move the walls, windows and doors around to try different configurations. I strongly recommend building a scale model and using your floor plans to test out what might look good on the computer.

Spring will soon be here and I need to get my forms built for the footings. The road ahead will be long and have its potholes, but I feel prepared — so far.