Building our dream home in southern Ohio. It is a 2400 sqft ranch style with high hip roof and attic gables. Here are the options I'm considering, welcome any thoughts.
1.) Build home with full ICF from footer to roofline, brick exterior
2.) Build home with 2x6 exterior walls with spray foam insulation, zip system wall panels, and full brick exterior, insulate underground basement walls with 2" closed cell spray foam.

The ICF build is going to cost me 20K-25K more. In my climate zone heating in the winter is the big cost. I plan to offset that by having a wood burning fireplace to be used in the bitter cold winter. I'm thinking that I will have little overall energy performance difference in the two builds. Although I would prefer the ICF because of strength and probably slightly better energy performance, the practical thrifty side of me is thinking the ICF will not pay off in energy savings alone. Another thing to note is the ICF will cost me $100 extra per month on the 30yr loan. Many people claim to get that back in energy savings, but I assume that is comparing to a fiberglass insulated home. I'm just not sure I could average that amount of savings on this size house throughout the year per month.

Let me know your thoughts.

If you are building a ranch (one level) home, why build a "high hip roof with attic gables"?
Either simplify the roof system (and save thousands of dollars) or use the attic space for your secondary bedrooms, thereby reducing your footprint (and save thousands of dollars). Then you can build with ICFs, which would be a better idea than your other option, and still stay within your budget.

Sorry for the rant. Ranch style homes with more cubic footage in the attics than in the living area, are a pet peeve of mine. You know, I once saw a ranch style home where the roof system cost more than the finished living space. Just plain unacceptable.

If you stick frame, consider having foam board on the exterior, taping the seams. This will insulate and help air seal the framing, headers, rim joist, etc.. You could use XPS, or take a look at DOW SIS (structural insulated sheathing) available in 1/2" (R3) and 1" (R5.5) thick. Using the SIS, you will not need osb or zip panels, also house wrap isn't required. You can spray foam 1-2 inches to air seal and be cost effective, and then spray in cellulose the balance of the cavity.

I understand what you are saying about the large attic and roof, but it is our dream home and if I'm going to be driving up to it everyday I want it to have the look that we like. We could have built less house and done ICF, but ultimatly felt we could get similar energy efficiency otherwise and still get the house we want. Thanks for the tip on the DOW product. I've been looking into exterior foam solutions. Is the 1/2 dow product going to do enough to stop "thermal bridging"?