Starting building plans for house on BOL

[Sniper-T]

... http://www.oldkentuckylogs.com/aboutus.php

I got some pricing on these... $6.50/sf or $52.00 for an 8 foot board.

def not cheap.

and shipping would be on top of that

[ak474u]

I am currently planing on starting my cabin this month. This weekend one of the guys that I hunt with showed me some metalized insulation that is real thin. It has an R-15 value and is designed to be a house wrap and vapor barrier. It is thin and I plan on using it on my cabin. Take a look I hope it helps.

http://www.insulation4less.com/Insul...l-48-Inch.aspx

That stuff looks interesting, however, if you just want to do a wrap, you may want to look up sigma technologies out of AZ, radiant barrier in contact with insulation has some issues with transmission of heat. I do radiant barrier for a living, and I get to pull out insulation covered with foil every week because it is transmitting heat, and retaining lots of moisture. As a house wrap, it would probably be ok, DON'T install the product you linked to in an attic! Radiant barrier in an attic is great IF, it is rafter based. I have a hard time with laminated/insulated radiant barrier products that purport to work, only because the guy who invented radiant barrier also invented the thermos, which uses an air space to insulate against transmission of heat or cold, we use the same principle in the installation of our products.

[ladyhk13]

Consider a safe room in the house as well... Not really sure on a way to do it though...

There are a lot of sites out there on ideas.

Here's some ideas. http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2010/...ms-to-a-house/

[Echo2]

I have helped construct 2 safe/panic rooms. It really depends on budget....but you don't have to have a huge budget to make it work....just some ingenuity.

[ladyhk13]

I would love to have one in the house we will be building but I am having a hard enough time finding a floor plan I like, is big enough (but keeps the footprint small enough that it won't kill us in footers), has 2 stories, south facing, has downstairs master, upstairs other bedrooms, open concept, really large rooms, ya know...I don't ask for much!

[Echo2]

You can turn a regular room into a safe room....it's not that it's impenetrable...it's just very difficult....it's not a vault.

[apssbc]

Thanks everyone. I know it's been a long time since I replied. Haven't been on here too much.

Great suggestions from all. I like the look of the cement cabin look, however it may be pretty darn expensive. Maintenance is probably non existent in the long run.

A safe room is a definite need. Something I am thinking about seriously as how to do it.

We were up today and picked a spot out so were pretty excited.

[ladyhk13]

When we were kids.....we built a hay bail house complete with roof.

We camped in it a few times in the winter.....it was the warmest little shelter ever.

4 bails high...5 with the roof...and bail beds for 3 kids.

Only down side is fire was 50+ feet from shelter.....for safety reasons.

Been years since I thought of that.....

They are awesome, have super great unsulation, are pretty much insect proof, rot proof (if put in a concrete slab and not touching the ground), make wonderful HUGE window sills that you can put plants in or for CATS to sun themselves, have a very long burn rating so it is really good on insurance (ever try to burn a bale of straw?). The only thing is they aren't bullet proof. But I really love them and they last forever. But I think we are going to end up with metal or ICF (or combination of both).

[Sniper-T]

^
It's strange that you mention CATS, burning and bullets all together like that. That's the same way I think!

[ladyhk13]

Of course you would! But at lease it's not Burning Cats!!!