Looks like we have our site (Portland, OR) and need to settle on a design. We love vaulted, great-room plans, so thought it'd be cool to vault the entire main (living) level and put all the bedrooms into a garden basement with large windows (grade at 4 feet off basement floor). The site is flat, so "walk out" would be up some stairs from the master suite, while the main floor terrace is not too tall yet to connect from the living room to the garden... We'd love to go close to off-grid and thought the energy savings, especially heating/cooling should be worth considering this design. After all, one lives on the living level, not the sleeping level.

However, every professional we have consulted that is anyhow linked to home building/selling/designing/assessing has been screaming about how that would ruin our resale/assessed value and how it would be so hard to really build a warm,dry,livable basement. The neighborhood is considered well-draining soil and there is no stormwater system, no history of flooding, and lots of the area homes have full basements that are finished to varying degrees. Any comments on the pros and cons of this situation/design would be greatly appreciated!