A couple more decisions were made.

1. We will raise the house up about 3 feet from the concrete pilings to give us a crawl space under the house.

2. We are going to use spray in cellulose (fire/pest retarded newspaper) insulation and will likely do a little spray in foam initially to seal things up and make it all that much more efficient. Also, we are going to do it ourselves. The negative things that people say about cellulose are that it settles a lot and that it molds and catches on fire easily. However, from the research that I have done, including the perusal of Bob Vila's site, I have determined that these problems can be easily solved and refuted.

• If you use too much water in your cellulose mixture when installing it, it will take a VERY long time to dry out (up to a year). But, if the mixture is right and you give it some time to breath and dry out before installing Sheetrock/ replugging the hole, you should be fine.
• If the newspaper is treated, it is actually LESS flammable than fiberglass. I read one story about a woman who had her cellulose and fiberglass insulation stored in her barn while she built. There was a fire and the fiberglass stuff went up in flames. The cellulose insulation was the only thing left after the fire. And, it was so effective that the bags of cellulose that were piled beneath other bags, still had their plastic bags intact after the firefighters put out the flames. Now THAT is impressive!
• It is recommended that you actually OVERSTUFF the wall cavity with cellulose because of the fact that it settles.

The reasons I am choosing cellulose over fiberglass are:

• Cellulose doesn't cause cancer like fiberglass. I think that that is all the reasoning I need. Fiberglass is often made from recycled materials these days, but its still awful. Just think about it, which would you rather have floating around your house, newspaper particles or GLASS particles?!