basement wall insulation - help me avoid a mistake

in the upcoming months, i will be remodeling our basement. there are two primary goals:
1. seismic retrofit (basically involves anchors bolts, tie down straps, and adding plywood to the interior face of cripple walls)
2. improve insulation

my insulation scheme is as follows:
- 1" XPS on the floor with 3/4" tongue and groove plywood over it (for carpet)
- concrete foundation wall gets 2" of XPS or spray foam (closed cell)
- cripple walls get R13 faced batt insulation
- insulate joist cavities at the rim board as well as general air sealing

please take a look at this image for my plan:


i have several question areas which are indicated by the dark dashed boxes. let's start from the top and work down.

1. at the interface of the joists and the wall, how should i best insulate this? i know you can spray foam or XPS foam the cavity, but i'm curious about transitions to other wall/ceiling surfaces. it seems to me i need to fully cover any potential cold surfaces to prevent cold air from contacting my future finished interior wall.

2. at the transition between cripple wall and concrete foundation wall, what should i do here? i've seen some suggest just putting a vapor barrier over the cripple wall (like 6 mil plastic) and then taping it to the XPS foam (assuming i use XPS and not spray foam). but, that method seems inadequate to me since it feels like that's a good spot for cold air in the winter to come off the concrete, then reach the backside of the interior (heated) wall.

3. where the floor insulation meets the concrete wall insulation. should i leave a gap or make it tight? some say that a gap is good in the event it gets moist. as far as i can tell, we have a pretty dry basement, though there is a musty smell (likely in the floor which i'll be ripping out). no matter what, i plan to hold the subfloor a few inches away from the wall insulation.

bonus question:
on the surface of the interior plywood used for the seismic retrofitting, should i just spray foam or XPS foam over this to create a vapor barrier? this is my biggest concern of the project. i do not want to inadvertently create reverse vapor barriers or not insulate correctly.

i can see moisture/cool air getting in through the cripple wall foundation plate and into the cripple wall (which will have batt insulation). once there, it seems easy enough for it to permeate through gaps and the plywood and then reach the back of the interior (heated) wall. i feel like foaming over the entire wall surface could avoid this potential issue, but then i am worried about doing something stupid like trapping too much moisture in the batt insulation or reversing a vapor barrier. please see the pic below. this kind of "insulation" is underneath my siding. i call it structural cardboard --- it's about 1/8" thick and has a silver facing.

we're doing carpet for sure. the basement will be a living room/play area for soon to be future kids (<6 weeks) and we will have a guest bedroom and bathroom down there. it needs to be comfortable.

there currently is carpet in a small section. i believe it's just laid over 6mil plastic. i will pull it out and give it the smell test.

BG: my buddy the electrician either didn't care about that wire not being stapled, or fixed it before we finished up the wall. in either case, there's tile and such already installed, so it is where it is

also, could anyone speak about heat recovery ventilators? our house is 1979 construction, but with recent air sealing and insulation efforts on my part, i suspect it's going to be much tighter. our windows are all new (2011) and exterior doors as well. i'm starting to think we may benefit from a HRV.

heating is provided by an electric furnace with an old heat pump. of course, our goal is to heat 100% with wood this upcoming year, but we'll see how that goes. i do see using the recirc fans from the furnace to move air from the warm upstairs to the basement.

thanks all!

yes, i read the buildingscience articles.

i also came across a great site where the author responds to every question/comment. it's pretty amazing.

http://www.homeconstructionimprovement.com/vapor-barriers-for-basement-insulation/3/
http://www.homeconstructionimprovement.com/vapor-barriers-for-basement-insulation/
http://www.homeconstructionimprovement.com/how-to-insulate-a-concrete-floor/
http://www.homeconstructionimprovement.com/basement-insulation-guide/

it looks like i'll be doing either 2" or 3" of CCF sprayed by a contractor. quote came in very reasonable, especially considering the time tradeoff.

one question: i know i have some water lines and such that run pretty close to an exterior wall. if those are too close to the future interior plywood face (plywood will be on the exterior wall studs, on the inside of the room), should i have them spray right over it?

followup related question: if my water lines are in the stud cavities (to be insulated with R11 or R13 and then covered with plywood), and then i have foam sprayed over the plywood, are those lines at risk of freezing since they'll be very isolated from a heated space (interior sheetrock wall, 2-3" CCF, plywood, and R11)?

i'm performing a seismic retrofit. this involves adding plywood sheathing to the inside face of the studs. it's going to take me a few weeks to complete all of this. it's recommended to not leave your walls without drywall since that is a bit of a stabilizer. therefore, i will be doing sequential demo (demo, clean, retrofit, and repeat) until everything is retrofitted. once it's retrofitted, i will hire out the spray foam insulation for a single day's work --- mobilization is the highest cost.

also, because of the junction between plywood and concrete foundation walls, i believe it will make more sense to spray foam on the plywood down to the floor rather than in the cavities then down to the floor since i will need access to install the plywood to the sill plate (very critical)

one more question:

i was all set to pull the trigger on getting the closed cell foam installed, but then read this:
http://www.greenspirationhome.com/sprayed-foam-insulation-why-homeowners-must-proceed-with-caution/

my wife is nearly 9 months pregnant, so the idea of having the basement sprayed in the next week or two and then having horrible chemical smells (possibly dangerous) is deeply concerning to me. i understand that most of these issues are contractor-related installation methods, but still.

price for 464SF of spray foam @ 3" thick is $1800, so $3.90SF. i can buy 3" XPS for about $1.26/SF. add in some great stuff and manual labor and not worry about possible chemical smell issues....

hmm.

i would love to hear your thoughts on this (soon!).

semi-related question:

i know a lot of people that install rigid foam on the floor followed by a wood subfloor will use tapcons to screw things down. after installing a few tapcons in my concrete for other purposes, i've learned that they do not work well for me unless the hole is perfectly clean. even then, it seems like it's hit or miss. therefore, i'm thinking that instead of using tapcons, i would just do the following:
1 use some great stuff spray foam, spray the backside of the rigid foam
2. place on ground and put on temporary counterweight 'til it sets
3. spray foam on backside of plywood
4. place on foam and put on temporary counterweight 'til it sets

think this is a problematic approach? the biggest drawback i see is that with the tongue and groove plywood, i wouldn't be able to pound it into place as easily.

IIRC, you can have issues with the foil surfaces on concrete.

also, with the polyiso, i believe it performs horribly at cold temperatures. at normal temps, it does fine and is slightly better than XPS. at lower temps, it's R-value drops from 6-something down to 2-something.

i'm planning to build a wall in front of my foam, so XPS is the way to go for sure (if i don't do spray foam)