This is a great website for those of you who are interested in knowing more about the "passive house".

http://www.passivehouse.us/passiveHouse/PassiveHouseInfo.html

My house won't actually be certified, but it will incorporate all the principles and many of the latest technologies. And there will for sure be some $$ tradeoffs. Mostly I am just not willing to wait until next spring to start construction, and that's what being certified would likely mean -- a lot more hoops which all take time. I though maybe if I wrote those words I'd change my mind, but I didn't. My house will be, in the words of one of my favorite yoga teachers, Carrie Parker, "good enough".