Are there any free house design programs on the Internet? It used to be that you had to go pay an architect to draw up your dream house plans but now that the Internet exists are things different? If you go to Google and search for "design your own house online" or "house design software" you will find a handful of sites that are promoting programs that you have to pay for.
Some of these programs are not that expensive (I saw one that cost between $30 and $40 for a year subscription) but are there any for free? I could not find any which leads to the question of whether there really are any. It seems like you can get most things for free on the Internet if you just put in the extra time and search hard for it.
Is house design software different? Even if you use a 3D house design program to map out your initial house plans, you are eventually going to have to go to a professional to get things checked out for doability. It is nice however, to be able to play around with your house design ideas on a 3D program and not have to do it on paper. With 3D house design software, everything is so much easier and you can get a much better feel for what you are really trying to build. If you are going to design your own house plans, it is much easier to take advantage of the Internet and do it online.
DESIGN YOUR OWN HOUSE ONLINE
DESIGN YOUR OWN HOUSE TIPS
If you are planning to design your own house, here are some tips (in no particular order) that might help you get the job done right:
1) Use vanities that are high so that you don't have to bend over every time you want to wash your hands or brush your teeth.
2) Put two sinks in the kitchen instead of one. This is one of the advantages of doing your own house design - you can add a sink like this that would never come in a regular home built by a company builder.
3) To make your shower stand out you may want to install a seat in the shower. Of course you would have to build a shower that is big enough to accommodate this.
4) Raise the ceilings in the garage to provide extra storage space. You might also make sure electrical outlets are installed in your garage in the places you will need them.
5) Use indirect lighting to create a better living room ambiance.
6) If you plan in advance where you will want all your furniture and electrical gadgets to go, you will then be able to insure the right quantity and placement of all electrical outlets. Many times when you move into a new house, you will find the light switches and outlets are not in the places you would like them.
7) Many new homes now have garages that are not wide enough for SUV's. By designing your own house, you can make sure this does not happen.
8) Make sure you install new CAT5 wiring throughout your house for your computers. All new homes should come with the latest technology or you may have to lower your price when you go to sell the house.
9) A central vacuum system is something you might consider. More and more new houses are being built with them.
10) If you design your own house, you can have a fireproof safe installed and hidden where you choose. This is something you will never get with a pre build home.
3D HOUSE DESIGN
Now that computers are everywhere you can get some powerful 3D house design software to help you design your own house. Never before has so much technology been available to the common person.
For the first time Punch! Home Design Studio™ Pro, for the Mac, makes your home design experience more powerful than ever! With this new software you can design your house inside and out. It includes a massive plant library along with our popular automatic growth tool, so you can plan spacing and see what your landscape will look like a few years down the road. Draw your design in 2D; take a 3D Hollywood-style walk through as your 2D creative changes auto-update in the 3D view.
For those that have a regular PC there is Punch! Professional Home Design. This is a software package that lets you design all of the critical components for your home. This powerful home design capability includes foundations, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, custom windows, custom roofs, and much, much more. You can turn layered drawings on and off for uncluttered viewing of your home design. You can combine as few or as many layers as you wish and spot potential costly design conflicts. Ordinary blueprints could never give you that level of insight into your home designs! This is the best 3D house design software available!
How to Design and Build Your Own House
Are you thinking you might want to design your own house? Anybody can sit down and draw a rough floor plan. But this book tells you to think in terms of how you use space rather than rooms. That simple piece of advice makes you think differently about what you want in a house and what you need. If you are thinking of building, GET THIS BOOK.
Even if you're going to a contractor or architect, get the book and sit down with your whole family to make plans. You'll find out about personal privacy issues, how your rooms and spaces should flow, how to make your house more efficient not from an energy standpoint, but from a "how I use my house" point of view.
This book retails for $26.95 but you can get it cheaper right here - How to Design and Build Your Own House
House Design Starting Tips
If you want to design your own house, it can be a bit overwhelming if you start completely from scratch. If you are reading this, it means you have access to the Internet and with it, thousands of free house plans.
Rather than starting from nothing, you can quickly search on the Internet and pull up as many different house plans as you can imagine. Some sites even have 3d models and videos of different floor plans that you can easily and conveniently view from your home. This is a great way to get started and gather ideas about what types of features you want in a house.
Many times, by looking at different floor plans and house plans, you will be able to decide that you like this feature from this design plan and that feature from that design plan. You can also find thousands of great pictures of different houses from the outside as well on the Internet. Looking at these pictures will give you ideas of what type of house design you want and give your family a starting point for discussion. If you are going to design you own house, you might as well take advange of every tool available and the Internet can be a very valuable tool!
House Design By Looking At For Sale Homes
If you want to get lots of house design ideas, a great place to get those ideas is by looking at other houses. By seeing things that you like in houses that are already built, it makes it easier to come up with your own house design plans.
On Saturdays and Sundays each week, you will see lots of "Open House" signs on street corners in the residential neighborhoods. You can stop in to take a tour of all those houses you see open and you shouldn't feel bad about not really being in the market to buy. This is a great way to see a large variety of different house designs, but also to see how they are furnished. How else are you going to get a grand tour of other people's house all for free!
Once you are in an open house and are looking around, you might want to remember what you are seeing. A great little small camera is the Flip Camcorder which fits right in your pocket. It is small, lightweight, takes geat movies, and is easy to carry anywhere. You can discreetly take a film of what you like in every house you go to! For instance. if you see iron balusters that you particularly like on a beautiful staircase in one of the homes, you can take a video of the staircase and try to design the same thing in your house.
Make sure you go to different neighborhoods so that you can see all the different house plans that are in your area. Going from house to house allows you to see all types of house designs from different economic areas and price ranges. You may end up realizing that you like one idea from one house and another from a different house. This will give you lots of great ideas once you start to design your own house plans.
Design Your Own House - Visit City Planning And Zoning
Before you get too involved in designing your own house, make sure you visit your local city and zoning office. Now days, you need to get permission from the government to do almost anything it seems.
You will need to make sure that the house you want to build does not violate any of the zoning laws. You may also need to get permits for things that you never even thought of. For instance. in some places you need a permit just to expand your house or attach a covered awning to your patio.
How do they find out if you have broken the zoning laws or need a permit? They do fly-bys in many cities which compare what the land looked like last time to what it looks like now. If you want to design your own house and build it on your property, it is best to make sure you have everything lined up legally first so that you know what is required of you. You want to make sure you know exactly what you are getting into so that there are no nasty surprises later on.
Design Your Own House - 3D Software
Before you set out to design your own house, you need to make some basic decisions and get some ideas. How much do you want to spend? What is your time frame? Do you already have a lot or do you need to find suitable land first? Are you ready to deal with the inevitable problems that will materialize on any big project of this size?
These are just some of the questions that you should be asking yourself before you get started. Many people want to design and build their own house but decide against it after they get started because it is just too much. Once they are knee deep and thousands of dollars invested, they realize they are over their head.
One of the great innovations of the 20th century was the computer and now you can use it to not only help you make decisions, but also to save you money in this endeaver as well. Once you have an idea of the house design you want, grab an inexpensive 3D program and build your house online first!
With these advanced but easy to learn 3D software programs, you can build your house and make all the adjustments you want. It is a gigantic step ahead of the old way of paying an architect to draw what you describe to him.
Professional Home Design from Punch is a great choice as you can do everything from design your own house to landscaping design and individual room design.
Another popular choice for computer home design software is 3D Home Architect. This is similar in that you can do all sorts of home design and it is a little cheaper.
Using computer software to get started designing your house is a great choice as you can see all your ideas and make them come to virtual life right before your eyes. It gives you a great starting point and will allow your imagination to operate at full capacity. It will also give you and idea of just how much will be involved in this new project of yours and whether you think you can handle it.
Design Your Own House - How Much Can You Afford?
No matter how much money you have, you are going to have to design your own house within a budget. You will need to know how many dollars per square foot you can afford.
Visiting your bank's mortgage department is the best way to figure how much house you can afford to build. They will ask you financial and job related questions which you will need to answer truthfully and honestly. The numbers they will give you are tied to the interest rate at that time which may go up or down by the time you actually want to borrow the money. However, you can use those numbers to get a ball park figure which will help you know how much you can afford when you start to design your own house.
Once you have an idea of how much you can afford, you will want to start making decisions about your home design. You could also start to call some contractors to see what their rates are but it is generally best to do this after you have an actual home design plan to show them. This all assumes you already have the plot of land that you want to build on. If you have yet to buy the land, then you should work on that first.
Design Your Own House Plans
If you want to design your own house, here are some things you should do to before you get started:
1) Look around your neighborhood and many others to get ideas of what you like and don't like. There is no better way than to see something you like right in front of you. Things look different in reality than on paper so if you can find what you want and see what it looks like already built, then you are well on your way.
2) Look through lots of home books and magazines to get ideas.
3) Make sure you get input from every family member to find out what they want. The more ideas you can incorporate from family members the better. Designing your own house can be fun if you involve everyone.
4) Now that computers are everywhere and so easy to use, rather than draw your plan on paper you should take advantage of a 3D computer program. The advantage of these programs is that you can see your house from any angle and come as close to what it will look like in reality. One of the most populare products on the market for home design is Punch Professional Home Design Platinum™ Version 12 MSRP for $99.99.
5) Once you have what you think you want, take it to a professional to find out how well it all fits together. He (or she) will be able to make any needed sugestions and modifications.
Design Your Own House - The Beginning Steps
Before you design your own house, you have to remember to take into account your budget and your lifestyle. Putting things down on paper is fun and you can get creative but you can't get carried away.
When you are deciding what type of house you want to design, you need to ask all members of the family and try to get input from everyone. Narrow down the ideas to ones that are the most practical and affordable. Yes, it would be nice to design that 5 bedroom house with a 3 car garage but do you really need all that and can you afford it?
A good place to start is with a design book
Once you have more of an idea of what you want, you can use an online tool, hire an architect, or a home designer to help design a house for you. You might like to start with an inexpensive online tool and then take your design to a professional who will be able to make the necessary modifications. If you design your own house first, you will always have the satisfaction that it is "your" house and you were the one who came up with the plans.
Design Your Own House - Cool House Plans
If you are looking to design your own house, a great way to start is by using one of the many great online tools. This is a great time to be doing your own home design as the Internet has some powerful tools that were not available in years past.
The common everyday family can now design a great looking home by experimenting online to see what everything would look like in 3D. A great Revolutionary 3D Home Design Tool!: Design rooms, remodel kitchens, plan landscaping and more. Check out Plan3D.com!
Just a few years ago, you would have had to go to a professional to have him design your house and that would not have been cheap. Now you can sit back with the whole family and take your time deciding what type of house plan designs you want. You can try all sorts of different designs and not feel pressured by a professional that you are paying by the hour.
If you are looking to design your own house or just want to design a specific room in your house, this great 3D home design tool at Plan3D.com! may be just what you are looking for. Once you come up with what you feel the whole family wants, you can then take your design to a professional and look into having it built.
Design Your Own House - Start Out Small
When you set out to design your own house, it is best to start with a small house plan. You can always add to it once you get the basics down on paper.
You have the choice of choosing a house plan from someone else, or design your own house plans. If you are doing it for the first time, a good idea is to find several house plans you like and then sit down and make your own which combines the best of all of them.
You want to design your own house plan such that you have room to grow. Will you be having more children? Might your parents be coming to live with you someday? These are things you need to think about way in advance. Also things like how many stories you want your house to have. You can easily climb stairs now but how about in 30 to 40 years? Do you want to have a bedroom (or maybe even the master bedroom) on the ground floor?
Design Your Own House
This website will show you how to design your own house. Designing your own house can be done easily now days with the different Internet programs and the wide variety of resources available.
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