I'd love to hear opinions on timber frame construction. We live in the middle of the country (Nebraska) and want to build a two-story family home. What about this scenario - timber frame, strawbale infill, roof??, passive solar design (as much as possible)? I look forward to your diverse opinions. Thanks Mike S

Love the look of timberframe, but have a hard time justifying the costs. Just the frames can cost more than the whole house would, if built conventionally. Then you still have to build the rest of the house. We have replicated the look of timberframe for a fraction of the costs.  Not the structure, just the look.

Cost can definitely be an issue and a faux beam system might not be a bad way to go.  There are kit systems available and a little hunting on the web should bring up some companies that offer those.  That might be a way to bring down the costs.  With the open design of the timberframes SIP's for the roof might be an option with strawbales  for the walls.  For anyone interested in straw bale construction the book Design of Straw Bale Buildings by Bruce King has a lot of good information on latest information regarding this technology.

I agree that Timber frame construction looks great, but you pay for it. If it is really important to you, then go for it. I have attached a construction picture of what you can accomplish with a SIP structure with timber detail. I think the overall efficiency is superior while still having the look you are trying to achieve. And the cost is substantially less :)

Timber frame looks great but I agree with the above, cost is prohibitive as well as the maintenance in the future. If these are not issues to you then do what you like and don't look back. It can be a strong home for sure, but I'm partial to ICF's myself. We had a guy just a mile down the road built ICF then use concrete "timber" to make hsi home look like a log/timber home but with no maintenance issues and it's STRONG. Of course his is 8000 sq ft so money wasn't much of an issue for him. lol