Non-standard wall/ceiling height (8’ 6”)??

[Ara Abrahamian]

I am designing/building a new construction, 2-story single-family house but we’ve run into an issue where the local code limitations (specifically with regard to the maximum top of plate height) are prohibiting us from doing our desired ceiling heights of 10’ on the first floor and 9’ on the second floor. The most we can do is 10’ and 8.5’ at the walls, then we can choose to vault the second floor ceiling if we want a bit more height in the 2nd story bedrooms.

My question is: since most lumber comes in 8’ or 10’ (sometimes 9’) lengths and since interior doors, closet doors, trim pieces, etc are also usually designed according to these more standard lengths, is it a really bad idea to have my 2nd story walls at 8’ 6” rather than the standard 8’?

This is going to be our own, personal forever home so we’d like to have higher ceilings if possible, but I also don’t want to do something that will make the build significantly more expensive or make the process of finding supplies even harder than it already is these days.