[ctroein89]

> While you are not wrong, those requirements are the same for all houses.

Not every house needs triple-pane windows and R25 insulation in the walls, sitting on a 8-ft deep basement, with a steep roof pitch for snow to slide off of. Generally, you want to cut corners, because building to code in New York would be overkill in Texas.

You could have unique plans for each climate zone, but then the slope of the land and the shape of the lot also matters. Ideally, you'd want to be situated on a southward facing slope, beneath the road, so you could have huge windows towards the back of the house to taking in winter sun, natural insulation from the hill, and smaller windows facing the street. If you can't, you'll have to compromise on something that makes the house less pleasant to live in and/or harder to heat/cool.

At this point, we might actually have 100 distinct home designs, for each climate zone and slope. If you're lucky, these standard might actually be compliant with zoning for your lot, and maximize the allowable use of the lot. Every town is different, and who knows what silly rules your town requires.

At this point, you still need a design that local builders know how to build. Builders talk about "communities of practice", where they know how to build a certain way in response to how all of the other contractors in that area will also build, so that a subcontractor doesn't ruin another subcontractor's work. If you hire builders to build in ways they're not familiar with, they'll make mistakes. Most mistakes will be fine, but they could add up to failing to meet the code or standard for which the house was designed.

Ideally, you want to find an architect and a builder who have worked together before, to design and build the kind of house that you want using the techniques appropriate for that design, with the builder having crews of subcontractors that he/she has worked with before. If you've reached this point, you might as well take the extra step to building the perfect house for you, and customize it just a little more.

[Qwertious]

>Ideally, you'd want to be situated on a southward facing slope, beneath the road

If you casually assume everyone lives in the northern hemisphere.

Don't worry, we're already used to it with you all decorating websites with snow-themes in December, and saying "releasing this spring!" when what you actually mean is "April".

[philwelch]

Very good points. Though I would point out that insulation is still very important for Texas houses to keep cool in the summer. I’d also add that local soil and ground conditions are going to affect how you build the house’s foundation.

[bluGill]

> Not every house needs triple-pane windows and R25 insulation in the walls

Yes they do. Cooling is a large energy cost. Besides, you end up with that much space in your walls anyway just because for material strength reasons you need wide walls.

> sitting on a 8-ft deep basement

A basement is a line item that can be added or deleted at will. If you don't have stairs to the basement you still need that space except it gets a floor and is marked tornado shelter.

> with a steep roof pitch for snow to slide off of

They still build the same roof pitches so rain runs off.

> you want to cut corners, because building to code in New York would be overkill in Texas.

Not really because much of house design that matters is about structural matters where thickness matters. Other parts are about standard parts, you can buy a 2x4 off the self. While 2x3s exists, they cost more than a 2x4 and are generally lower quality.

[rascul]

> A basement is a line item that can be added or deleted at will.

If you already need a deep foundation and basements are common enough in the area so people know how to do them well, maybe. For other areas, it's a significant expense, a lot of work, might require design changes, and it'll probably leak.

[bluGill]

Basements are always expensive. They are common where the soil demands a deep foundation as when you already need to move a lot of dirt you may as move more and get something useful out of it. Realistically though even in places that need deep foundations you are probably better off building a floor up and no basement.

Either way though, they are easy to remove from plans if you don't want one.

[unregistereddev]

> you end up with that much space in your walls anyway just because for material strength reasons you need wide walls.

For material strength, walls are fine with 2x4 framing. However, 2x4 framing is limited to R19. So this is actually not true. The reason builders went to 2x6 framing is entirely to allow for a larger insulated cavity.

> They still build the same roof pitches so rain runs off.

Roofs do not require the same pitch to dispel snow as they do to shed snow. Roof pitches are genuinely steeper in areas that see particularly high snow loads.

[bluGill]

Builders have gone back to 2x4 in cold climates. They put 2 inches of foam outside. The wood of studs is r5 even though the insulation is r19, so the continuous foam is better.

And in warm climates there were going to 2x6 as well as air conditioning needed the r value.