SUPER HOUSE was written to empower anyone to create an ideal home. If you want to design a new home or make an addition to an existing home, it leads you step-by-step through everything you need to know. For renovations and repairs, you will find the critical information that guarantees a perfect job. If you are buying an appliance, Super House advises you how to make the best choice. If you are shopping for a home on the market, Super House is the ideal guide to all the features you want. The author, Donald Wulfinghoff, is a world renowned expert on building design. He wrote Super House to enable anyone, regardless of background, to enjoy the benefits of a home that is super-efficient, totally comfortable, free of health hazards, strong, and beautiful. A host of innovations advance the state of the art, while using conventional materials and construction methods for economy and reliability. Super House is organized in Eight Steps: Step 1 shows you how to design every room, how to arrange the rooms for convenience and efficiency, and how to create a beautiful style Step 2 explains how to make the best use of windows and skylights for daylighting, view, ventilation, solar heating, and emergency escape Step 3 creates a super-efficient structure that will remain intact for centuries, protecting the family from radon, fire, tornadoes, earthquakes, and intruders Step 4 recommends the best methods of heating, cooling, and ventilation for comfort, energy efficiency, and freedom from health problems Step 5 covers elegant plumbing fixtures, efficient water heating, and making your water supply safe Step 6 explains how to achieve the most efficient and visually effective lighting Step 7 gives you tips for selecting every type of major appliance Step 8 advises you how to deal with your contractors to get your project done perfectly. In addition, Super House explains alternative energy sources and technologies, including wood burning, solar energy, wind energy, geothermal heat pumps, earth-sheltered construction, water recycling, and living off the grid, with important cautions about each. Super House shows you how to design and select the best features for your home, while leaving the toil, tools, and special skills of construction to contractors. To enhance your practical understanding of house construction, it includes an illustrated primer that shows how a house is built from the foundation to the roof. Worksheets, checklists, and over 600 illustrations make every project easy and fun. Sidebars provide fascinating insights. Each topic recommends the best choices to consider. Super House is a first-place winner of the Benjamin Franklin Awards . It was named a Book of the Year at the 2016 American Library Association convention. It has earned rave reviews from the leading book review publications, including Booklist , Publishers Weekly , Foreword Reviews , and Midwest Book Review . Super House is unique, powerful, and fun. It pays for itself the first time you use it. And, it makes a great gift for anyone dreaming of a perfect home. This book allows readers with little to no experience to design the optimal house for their location, community, and family needs. Donald R. Wulfinghoff maximizes the relationship between our homes and our lives in his enormously helpful design guide, Super House: Design Your Dream Home for Super Energy Efficiency, Total Comfort, Dazzling Beauty, Awesome Strength, and Economy. Planning and building a house from scratch or even undertaking a simple addition or renovation can be daunting in scope. Yet through flow charts, checklists, worksheets, bulleted lists, and ample photographs, Super House breaks down big-picture issues such as architectural styles while also addressing nitty-gritty details such as the optimal placement of a toilet. For ease of flipping, the eight design steps of Super House are color-coded on each right page. Wulfinghoff devotes the most coverage to creating a superstructure that is, a house that is resilient to damage by nature, crime, and age. The second largest topic is arguably the most fun of the book: planning the home s layout and style. Here Wulfinghoff provides plenty of visuals of well-executed style elements, such as groupings of windows. Aesthetics, efficiency, and practicality are the foundations of Super House . For example, Wulfinghoff encourages those building a home to go stand on the land prior to construction to orient the layout and exploit the best views. He also suggests placing rarely used rooms like formal dining rooms and guest bedrooms toward the front of the house to serve as a buffer to a busy street. He likewise encourages placing rooms in clusters that streamline efficient heating and cooling throughout the day and night. In place of a locked safe, Wulfinghoff believes that every house should have a strong room with reinforced walls and doors in which to store valuables. Wulfinghoff s tone is geni