I had typed most of this up last night before you replied: Ah, the barn. I know a guy. A lot of the building stuff, I know a guy (you know him, too!) You WANT a basement out here. Have you forgotten how often tornadoes seem to hit out this way? Also, what happens below ground level, stays below ground level! If you do go with a basement (and I highly recommend it) just as others have said, DRAINAGE! It'e probably not a bad idea to double up on the sump pump well, or have a larger one put in to accommodate and extra sump pump, because those things do fail, and it's always when you need them the most (we have a friend that can tell you all about this!) Also, try to leave room in the budget for an automatic generator, or at least have provisions in place for one to be added. You WILL need a good water softener out here! Building a house is something that I would love to do, and I have put some thought into some of the cool things that I would do. One thing is using water for heat, gas fired boiler, and wood burner, run tubing in the garage and basement floors to heat them. Having the wood burner, or at least provisions to be able to add one later just gives you an option later, along with the auto generator (I would look into options there, for multi-fuel, etc..) just in case the SHTF. One thing that I can't believe I hardly see is a heated driveway, and sidewalks. The cost to install would be pretty low, and if you're using water for heat anyway, a heat exchanger would be all that's needed. I don't think it would take all that much to bring the temp of it up a few degrees to melt the snow off, but I may be wrong there. Call me up or stop out sometime for some of the other cool ideas I have! Also, while the excavator is there, have them move some dirt for a nice range backstop!