Hmmm.  The first thing that came to my mind after reading the subject (keyword: cheapest) and the posted message (Tornadoes) was that those two words may be at odds with each other. I've not looked into tornado-resistant construction much, however, reinforced concrete has been mentioned the few times I have looked briefly. That won't be on the list of cheapest methods or materials.

I don't know much about cordwood other than it seems to be labor intensive and if or when the wood shrinks there may be drafts. There is a member here who many years ago built a cordwood structure. One link, a search on the forum will likely bring up more.

As for myself, I am interested in saving money. I have learned over the decades that the cheapest right now is quite often the cheapest in the long run.

A concrete wall structure can be made to be very energy efficient. Lots of decisions to be made, such as is it better to insulate on the exterior to place the concrete thermal mass inside or better to insulate inside?

Version 1.0.4 - 05.26.2025
- Enabled joist hangers for openings.



Tutorial 24 - Joist Hangers and Openings (7:58 min.)

Version 1.0.3 - 05.25.2025
- Enabled I-Joist floor headers for openings.

Version 1.0.2b - 05.23.2025
-Updated the joist removal function for more granular usage when working with staggered joists.

I apologize for all of these micro updates, I would have preferred to roll this out after adding a few more features etc... However, the user who requested this specific ability obviously needs it to complete their project so it is simply a matter of expediency.



Now one can not only specify a single line of joists to remove but also remove specific joists from a given line, see screenshot above and note the syntax in the Remove Joists field.

I don't know much about cordwood or earthbag homes, but it seems like you shouldn't have a problem getting it done with the $ you are getting....Are you planning on building it yourself or hiring it out?  How many SF?  

Version 1.0.2 - 05.22.2025
- Enabled multi-ply floor headers for openings.
- Enabled variable lengths for staggered joists.





You can now enter in a single value for the joist length or you can enter in a list of lengths deliminated by commas. This update per user request.

The Floor Opening toolbar will now contain a sixth tool called "Stretch Header" which will allow the user to stretch the opening headers in a more intuitive fashion:



I'm not really wanting to add more icons to my already bloated toolbars but I feel like this will be a very worthwhile tool and it will almost certainly makes everyone's life a little easier when it comes to these openings.

I have 16 acres paid off, w/ well, septic, and electric will be about $2k to hook up.
I initially was considering a cordwood, or possibly earthbag style home. I still like cordwood the most but I've recently started considering barndominiums or ICF. I will be coming into a good chunk of money soon hopefully mid 6 figures and plan to start building as soon as I get it and have the house, land, water taken care of and hopefully enough for a decent solar backup w/battery bank. What would be all around cheap and energy efficient? I'm in the Midwest where we occasionally get a tornado, none too bad in my area in 100yrs, and some snow but I wouldn't consider it a major concern like some parts of the N/NE.

I've been giving the feedback I received thus far on the new opening tool some serious thought  and after further testing I can see that adjusting the header extensions to reach out and grab the correct joist is probably the biggest bottle neck in the process, if you can call it that.

Below is an example of a six sided L-shaped opening in a floor.  It has three headers and three "trimmers".  Note that headers run perpendicular to the joists however the opening tool really makes no distinction between headers and trimmers, they all have the same ten parameters.



I had to make five entries to adjust the headers to meet the I-Joists as shown.  Really not that difficult but somewhat time consuming and tedious in my opinion.  The solution to this problem could be to have the plugin somehow detect the nearest joist and auto-extend to it.  However, I feel that such an algorithm would be overly complicated and probably not very robust.

The other option would be to create a "Header Stretch" tool that allow the user to simply mouse over the header, select one end or the other and then stretch it to the desired location.  This tool would be very similar to the "Wall Stretch" tool that is part of the Wall plugin.  Rather than navigating through the labyrinth of menus one could simply adjust each end with only three mouse clicks.

Again, I have my work cut out for me.

I've also realized that it is not readily apparent to the user which header is which.  I may need to incorporate some sort of labeling option that will assist with this.