Like most people I love reading about people who have built their dream home, or dream garage, dream add on and think about how I would want to do something similar.

As an aside, in 1999 I created a 5 year vision plan for my life. Part of this plan involved the type of house I wanted to live in and I went into great detail down to paint schemes, wood choices, etc. I read it every day for a year and then put it away. In 2005 I was going through old back up CDs and found a copy of my vision. I realized in 2004 I had bought that house design and remodeled it subconsciously to my vision several years earlier, even down to the wallpaper and paint.

Today, I've come to realize for my family its not so important to have a modest house or expensive accouterments, (of which we have managed a few)but enough rooms & bathrooms for us plus guests. A larger kitchen area for gatherings. In a perfect world I'd move from my suburbia (in albeit a nice house)to a piece of land with a little acreage and well or spring water. Call it fortified or a bunker but a underground basement that could be considered secure. Whether that security involved the whole structure IDK. I'd also put a nice barn/garage on the property for work space, small cardio/weight set up, endless pool, bathroom, maybe even have the guest room here if I had to compromise on the house.

A power system that was on grid but could supplemented by solar or converted to solar and generator, run at least a few items like the lights and other small items on 12v outlets. Maybe even run the whole place on propane, but not sure how that would work.

In an effort to shorten this up quickly and appeal to previous thread on ETS, I have dreamed of an underground home or dome home. A modest victory garden, maybe some chickens.

Which brings me to the point.

My vision, if even a never realized dream, requires more knowledge than just putting my stamp on someone elses work. How could I go about CHEAPLY OR FREE, as a exercise (in possible futility) going from my thoughts to seeing if what I want to do is even possible?

Have any of you done this before using blueprints or such? In the middle of the build out? Do any of you have a set up similar to what I described, in any aspect. Have any of you set up an extra 12v power system in your house in case of power failure or use it in a way to conserve power on certain power uses like lights throughout the house or part of the house.

apologies for a long OP

comms... not sure on how it would work in the low humidity of Arizona, but you might look at plans for a Florida Cracker homes...some modern plans with 1900's non air conditioning design

Thanks for the tip, I just found this housein Florida. It was built to be self sufficient back in the late 90's. New technologhy would make it even better now.

I've been wanting to build a more energy-friendly home here in Houston and have been looking for old-time house plans. I figured they had already figured out how to optimize non-electrity-based cooling.

-Blast

Somehow in reading your post, I keep thinking about adobe (or fortified adobe) construction, particularly when you discuss a basement....

Blast... one of my former students (very long family history in Florida) graduated from Rice University's College of Architecture... IIRC he said that he had designed a Cracker Home for one of his projects there... you might try public domain archives from them... unfortunately I've lost contact with him

I had never heard about Cracker Houses before today and ended up spending my lunch reading about them. It seems like the sort of thing I wanted...though I also really love the monolithic domes.

-Blast

Great link Blast. I read the flash page only but expect the detail links to be just as informative and in depth. Thanks for posting that.

Cracker House...still a few around when I was younger..most gone now... early 1900's to about the after WWII boom...pre air conditioning... my house from 1928 has some characteristics (28 windows) but has had several additions

frame house with steep sheet steel roof..

elevated a couple of feet off ground on stone or concrete pillars

major "dogtrot" hallway running length of house... wide (6+ ft) and tall (no door frames) ... oriented to prevalent wind patterns

kitchen separate from main house, typically connected by breezeway

wide covered porch on 3 or 4 sides

floor to ceiling screened windows typically entire sides of house

single story but have open vertical "thermal chimney" at end of hallway...typically second story cupola to vent rising hot air providing air flow at lower level

large oak trees surrounding

I've always wondered this but not able to get any definitive answer. I want to know the name of the building design for new building in National Parks and some rural farms/ranches.

What is it called when you have the dark brown wood or log structures with the green metal roofs? Sometimes you see river rock columns or river rock around the base of the house.


The Cracker houses reminded to look that up.

I believe the term is something like "park rustic," a style that emphasizes on site natural materials and tries to blend with the natural setting. El Tovar at Grand Canyon is a good example.