I write about what I've learned designing and building homes — the things that work, the things that are misunderstood, and the questions worth asking before you build. These aren't abstractions. They come from a house I designed for my own family and live in every day.
The insulation industry has done an excellent job convincing homeowners that R-value is the number that matters. It isn't. A wall with perfect R-30 insulation and a single undetailed penetration loses more heat than a wall with R-15 insulation that has been properly sealed. I spent more time on air sealing in my home than on any other system, and I'll tell you exactly why — and what it looks like to do it right.
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Most clients come in knowing what they want. A farmhouse kitchen. Vaulted ceilings. A big front porch. These are aesthetic preferences, and they're valid. But they're not a design brief. Here's how I think about the difference between what a home looks like and what it does.
Most solar quotes are sized for average daily production in good conditions. They're not sized for January, which is the month that determines whether your system works. Here's how to think about the number that actually matters.
I've had discovery conversations with clients who showed up with a binder of magazine tearouts and no idea what their budget was. And I've had clients who arrived with nothing but had thought deeply about how their family actually lives. One of those conversations produces a better home.
The standard approach to HVAC sizing is to use square footage. The problem is that square footage tells you almost nothing about how much heating and cooling a home actually needs. Manual J exists for a reason — here's what it is and why it matters to you.
In almost every custom home, there is one room that sits largely unused and one space the owners wish they had thought to include. After seeing both patterns enough times, I've started keeping a list. This is that list.
The most common assumption about off-grid homes is that you sacrifice comfort for independence. My family runs a dishwasher, washer and dryer, full kitchen appliances, and a forced-air heating system — all from solar and battery storage. Here's how that's possible, and what it actually took to design it.
In software, there's a well-understood principle: defects are cheapest to find in the design phase and exponentially more expensive as you move toward production. Custom home construction follows the same curve — but most clients don't discover this until they're mid-build and facing a $40,000 change order.
Clients routinely over-spend on granite countertops and under-spend on windows. Windows are the primary point of thermal failure in most homes. Here's how to think about glazing selection, U-factor, SHGC, and where window quality actually moves the needle on comfort.
Thirteen years building systems for a living taught me how to think about complexity, manage stakeholder expectations, and make decisions that age well. Those skills transfer more directly to residential design than I expected — and in some ways they're more valuable here, because you only get one shot.
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I write about what I've learned from designing and building my own family's off-grid home on 40 acres outside Spring City, Utah — and from the work I do with clients. I don't have opinions about home design from a distance. I live in the house I built, and I notice every day what works and what I would have done differently.
These entries are for people who are thinking seriously about building — who want to understand not just what to choose, but why the decision matters, and what happens when you get it wrong.