Picking out your house plans can be a very overwhelming job. It also is a very exciting part of the building process. There are so many plans and layouts to look at. When my wife and I were looking through house plans we looked for two month. Just when we thought we had it picked, we would find a layout we liked better. It helps if you have an idea of how big a house you want to build. How many bedrooms and bathrooms you are looking for. If you want a basement, rambler, two or three story house. What kind of layout you are looking for. Our criteria was that we wanted the master bedroom downstairs. We wanted four bedrooms, three full bathrooms, a bonus room, office, and a laundry room downstairs. A big kitchen with the living room in the same area. No formal living room and a large outdoor patio. This helped us narrow our house plans down to eventually pick the one we bought. Now we customized the plan in areas that better fit us. We added a third garage bay and made our bonus room bigger. Modified the outdoor patio sizes and took out both the chimneys to save money. We installed a gas fireplace instead of wood. We changed the layout of our bathrooms and closets. Many other changes that we thought of through this process. Now remember this is your house so take the time to figure out what you want. Make it easier on yourself by spending the time to get your plans exactly how you want your house. It will save you a ton of money in the long run and make it a much smoother process. Take in consideration the size of your lot and make sure your house can be built on it. How you want your house to sit on your property. For example I new I wanted my porches to face the afternoon sun, so I had to completely flip the layout of the house. Match your budget to the type of house plans you are considering. Typically the more cuts in the foundation the more expensive it will be to build. A square box is ideal for budget and materials, but is it what you want your custom house to look like. Ramblers are more expensive because you have more foundation to pour and a bigger roof line. Plan for future development. What may not be in the budget now could be done later down the road.
Options: You can pick a stock house plan and keep it just how you bought it. Pick a house plan and make your changes to it. Or you can start from nothing and have an architect draw it from scratch. This option will be the most expensive and I would recommend staying away from this practice. The main reason is that the house you create has never been built before and there are many issues that could become an overwhelming hurdle in the process. But whatever you decide make sure you take the time to make it right and what you want. I had multiple people tell me that the house I had picked was to expensive to build. I was told by the architect himself that it was not an easy build. Luckily I had some friends and family that had built before and assured me I could do it. I took it all into consideration and made the decision to go for it. I will say that the house plans we went with were actually a step down from another set we were looking at. It is a very big decision. Ask the architect how much they think the house will cost and how difficult of a build it is. Ask if the house has been built anywhere in the area and who built it. If you can get the builders name you may be able to ask him some question. Possibly walk the house and make sure its what you want. Make sure you get at least 4 copies of house plans. Check and see if the company has a digital set they can give you on a disk or flash drive. This can be very helpful in the process of putting together your budget. Also it is a good idea to ask if they do site plans and see what the price is? A site plan is a map of your house on the property. Depending on who you have to submit your plans too they can be very detailed. Its worth paying a professional to do. I had to resubmit my siteplan 4 times and it was very frustrating. I was glad I paid my architect to do my siteplan. Lastly make sure if your in an area that requires the house plans to be stamped that company is a registered architect. Now its time to pull the trigger.