If you had $4M, would you spend $2M of it building a house?

So with ICF what's the interior wall treatment? Glue on sheetrock? Hand trowel plaster? Can't imagine nails sticking.
 
That's a great question .
The standard treatment is Sheetrock screwed to the wall. The transverse ribs that hold those blocks together for the concrete go all the way to the surface of the styrofoam and they provide a screwing material every 8 in on center. So you mark the wall at the top and know where those are and you can certainly screw a sheetrock screw in there and it will hold just fine you can screw a stud to it if you want to start a wall out there.
On the outside you waterproof 8 in above grade and then one of the common treatments is to screw mesh on the outside and parge it with Portland cement. You can colorize that and just stop there or stay with the gray. Or you can go over the top of that with a stucco.
That's how you do it at basement level but you can screw siding to it further up if you're building a house that way. I'm not, this is just another alternative for me making a daylight basement.
 
So with ICF what's the interior wall treatment? Glue on sheetrock? Hand trowel plaster? Can't imagine nails sticking.
Designs of blocks vary but I believe that have high strength plastic embedded that drywall is screwed to. There are also spray on alternatives, which are crazy durable and simulate a textured drywall surface in appearance, but also more expensive. I plan on going with spray for the inside of the entire perimeter wall. There will be a couple steel framed interior walls as well, attaching stuff to those will be easy.
 
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Designs of blocks vary but I believe that have high strength plastic embedded that drywall is screwed to. There are also spray on alternatives, which are crazy durable and simulate a textured drywall surface in appearance, but also more expensive. I plan on going with spray for the inside of the entire perimeter wall. There will be a couple steel framed interior walls as well, attaching stuff to those will be easy.
This is what we did.
 
OP--
If you have run Firecalc and the answer provides you with enough for your spending after the cost of your home, then you are fine. You will have SS on top.
You have $1mil in cash to assist with the cost of the house, so less taxes when you need to take out extra for building. And you believe the cost will be 1.4 mil, but budgeting 2 mil just in case--I think that is prudent.
This is YOUR Dream house for your retirement. It sounds like you are building/living as self sufficiently as you can with a current LCOL.
To live off the land, with beautiful views, peace and quiet in a safe place and a dream home--that sounds wonderful!
Enjoy!!
Please keep us posted on the build and how things go. The only thing I would add is to discuss with the builder to include any aging in place needs now--such as grab bars, wide hallways, higher toilets, etc.
Best Wishes to you!
 
I'm hopefully 4-5 years from building myself, which product did you use and how has it treated ya?
Oops. I checked with DH and I misspoke (in my defense I was out of town for work during this phase of our house build) We did stucco applied with a trowel. It gives the indoors a bit of a Mediterranean look. And I’m very very happy with it.
 
If the market dropped to zero and society collapses you will be in your townhouse fighting for food. I will be sitting in my hot tub in a bullet proof, weather proof, sound proof, bug proof off grid fortress with stores of freeze dried food.
Assuming this is a fairly large part of your overall motivation, then your decision makes more sense. However, you might find this article interesting:


FWIW, one of the other goals with the custom build would be evident if I told you that our power went out last night (thankfully just a blip) AND we don't have any water pressure right now. Usually it is only around 30-35 PSI (two full minutes to fill a 5 gallon bucket). Solar powered deep well will take care of both of those issues. I'm not actually a crazy prepper but I can see their point.
You'll need battery capacity to outlast any sort of cloudy weather or this plan fails. May I suggest an elevated water tank? Have an automated pump w/ a float trigger that keeps it full. Use your existing system but if you have a power or equipment failure you can at least get decent water pressure from the tank.
 
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