Gary, Wives have a way of simplifying the decision making process... Do it their way. I heard this comment once at a meeting of a bunch of Gov types... Consensus requires compromise. Compromise does not really please anyone. Just do it MY WAY and at least one of us will be PERFECTLY SATISFIED.
I fear wives like that approach.
Regarding the brick veneer on the hearth and up the wall. My mom's previous house had a similar hearth but it was only raised the thickness of a brick and then up the wall to the ceiling. She had a Franklin stove on it which would back draft once or twice a month for just a second or two when the wind was just right. Seems a tall enough stack wouldn't have been pretty.
The contractor thought he had misplaced one of the stove legs and couldn't finish the installation. He couldn't find the MFG and was about to give up when I looked at the illustrated parts breakdown (exploded view) and pointed out that it only had three legs, two in front and one in the midle in back. Boy was he embarrassed. Only mistake I knew about in the job subsequent to his arrival. He was a replacement for a bozo that dug the basement in the wrong lot and tried to foist off blocks that were 2nds on us. He tried to get by with just Thompson's Water Seal for waterproofing. He threatened to sue when my mom refused payment but backed off after mom went to the judge and found out he was in litigation with 5 other widows and his lisc was expired.
I really like the looks of the brick hearth with brick up the wall. That can really look nice, especially if you have room to make the brick up the wall pretty wide, I've seen those brick jobs with a niche or two built in for objects d'art (I just think them a good place to put the matches).
I've heard some good things about your kind of retaining wall. We just formed ours up and poured a plain wall 12 inches thick with a french drain on the uphill side to relieve the hydrostatic pressure. Sort of a brute force approach.
I can see from the photo that you are not lacking gable ends that can contribute to venting. My builder and I intend to do a slight mod to your icehouse roof description. The radiant barrier will stop just short of the ventilated soffit at the eaves so that incoming air will split and go both up the "chimney" formed by hanging the radiant barrier below the trusses and through the attic proper, exiting at the ridge vent where again the radiant barrier will stop just short of the ridge leaving a space for the attic proper to be exhausted.
I will actually have gable ends on all the different sections of the house but they will connect up to one another and not leave adequate space for venting. The gables at extreme ends of the house are over 130 ft apart by way of the ridge lines, too far between vents. I want a decorative and functional cupola which will help vent the garage. I wonder, would two cupolas be TOO MUCH? One on the garage and one on the house?
Pat
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