re: Wife and I seriously considering building a house

I have to agree with not doing the spray form. We finished building about 6 months ago and during the process we couldn't justify the extra $12k it would have cost to do spray form. We used that $$ to get more efficient heating and cooling. Now, my wife and I both work and our thermostats are set based on when we are home vs at work. So far, we are glad we skipped on the spray foam. Our highest electric bill has been $130 and the house is 4280 living. We do also have nat gas and the bill runs around $80/ mo. So say our electric and gas are $210/mo. If we would have done spray foam it would knock our bill down to maybe $150. That's a $60/ mo difference. It would take us about 16 yrs to break even. Not worth it, in our case.