Sand is a preferred soil and will keep your excavating bills down, however, if clay or something on the same order is the soil type, you can minimize the costs by choosing the right style home for the property. Your health department can take soil borings to tell you what type of soil you have. The terms Daylight and Walkout refers to the lower level only. A Walkout wall is a foundation wall that is built 3 - 4 foot below the grade and is also referred to as a frost wall because it is built below the frost line in cold claimants. Taller windows and of course doors can be placed in a Walkout wall.
Trusses are an engineered built roof system that can span large areas without support in the middle.
Many roof designs can be achieved with trusses. Trusses can also be built with floors attached to the bottom used to span spaces such as garages or pole barns. Many homes built today use trusses, however, there are those times when stairs, dormers or other openings require something more to complete the roof system. Rafters are made of many different types of materials these days but to keep it simple we will use 2x8, 2x10 or 2x12 boards made up of a variety of materials. Rafters are used in all homes where rooms are placed inside the roof area.