The economy may suck right now; but I still need to think about designing the future home on our 35-acres. I don't want to do the temporary mobile home routine; therefore the plan is to put up the outbuilding first to act as a field office, shop and materials storage building. I plan to have a bathroom with a shower, and a mechanical/electrical room in addition to the office. I'd like to get some opinions on what I'm thinking of doing out there.

The shop area would be heated with natural gas fired radiant heaters hung from the roof structure.

I'm planning on using a tankless water heater for the outbuilding's hot water needs.

The mechanical/electrical room would house the pressure tank and any water treatment equipment I may need for the well water. I am thinking of sizing the pressure tank and treatment equipment to serve the outbuilding and the house so as not to buy two of everything. The downsides that present themselves immediately would be potential adverse pressure drop from the outbuilding to the house, water volume issues, larger equipment may cost more than two smaller units (one for the outbuilding and one for the house); and the mechanical/electrical room and bathroom need to be minimally heated for freeze protection. However, these rooms will need heat since there will be water there anyway. Also, an alarm and/or monitoring system going to the house may be required to alert me to any problems since I doubt I'll be in the outbuilding everyday once the house is done.

Also I'm still figuring out what would be an energy efficient way to heat and cool the office, bathroom and mechanical/electrical rooms.

I was thinking of using in-floor radiant heating/cooling; but have pretty much decided against that for the shop area as I want to be able to drill holes in the concrete to mount power tools if need be. Yes, I could make sure I do an accurate as-built drawing, and the PEX tubing could be wire traced for electronic detection; but this seems more trouble than itï½´s worth.

The county doesn't require residential fire suppression systems; but I also have thought about a cistern to store potable water and do double duty as a firewater storage tank. This would entail more pumps; but could give the well pump more rest than the traditional well to pump to pressure tank system. Then again replacing or repairing a tired well pump may be less money overall than using a cistern based system.

Any thoughts, opinions, etc are most appreciated.

Thanks,