Let Your Fingers Do The Building

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Remember, also, that these are not the only home-design products out there. Since writing this article, I've come across several other design products, all of which appear to be similar to the ones mentioned above.

CAN I BUILD THIS HOUSE?

So, is all of this just so much smoke and mirrors or can you really build your dream house with the information you generate from these do-it-yourself home-design programs? Well, the answer to the latter part of this question is no, not really. In fact, not by a long shot.

If you remember, I stated early on that designing a house is a complicated and meticulous task and, unfortunately, these products only scratch the surface of the information needed to develop a complete set of design and construction documents. Yes, you can create a decent, well-dimensioned floor plan showing wall locations, stairs, doors, windows, and furniture—but it's only a start. To successfully build any home, you've also got to think about elevations, building and wall sections, mechanical equipment layouts, utility work, foundations, a basement (if one is to be included), floor and roof framing plans, and pages of construction details. There are also the issues of city code restrictions and zoning laws that need to be taken into consideration.

This is when the services of the architect come into play. As complete as the do-it-yourself home-design package might seem to be, you still need the professional to bring it all together.

Should you even bother spending the money for one of these programs? The answer to that question is a reserved yes. The best reason I can give for purchasing one of these products is that, simplistic though they are from a mechanical and physical standpoint, they give you the opportunity to take an active role in the design process of your own home. Consider the alternative: You hire an architect. You sit down with that architect for several hours to discuss all of your wonderful house ideas. The architect goes away for a week and attempts to turn your ideas into some sort of coherent and interesting design. In the meantime, you sit at home twiddling your thumbs. A week later, the architect returns and, guess what, the design is not quite what you had in mind. You rehash all your ideas and the architect goes away to try again. Eventually, the day comes when everyone is on the same page. As you can imagine, this process can take some time. But if you're using a decent home-design package, you have the opportunity to work on your own design in advance and throughout the process. You can try out all of your creative ideas using a design tool that is fun and relatively easy to use. The best part is that you are able to see instantaneous results of the design decisions that you make and are able to determine immediately which ideas work and which don't.

One of the more challenging tasks an architect faces in dealing with the average client is helping him or her to visualize and understand the translation of two-dimensional drawings into three-dimensional habitable space. But with the 3D viewer capabilities of the home-design packages, the two- and three-dimensional images are presented simultaneously, side by side, one building off of the other. This process enables you to understand and visualize the spaces you are creating.

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