I am having the same issue right now. I found a Frank Betz plan that I like but need to make several small modifications plus a local engineer will have to stamp them anyway for permit approval. I am going to call a local architect to get a cost estimate to make the changes vs the quote I am getting from Frank Betz to do the modifications themselves. My parents built a house using some stock plans from southern living - i believe John Tee was the architect, and did not have any problems with them.

My in-laws did, but they made very minor changes and didn't need to re-draw the plans. Their builder was able to modify as needed as nothing was load bearing related.

We found both of our house plans on-line. The one we are in now and the one we are going to build in the near future. I fall in love with the exterior and my husband looks at the floor plan. We just took the exterior picture to a draftsman in our area who modified the interior to fit our needs. My husband says that this was a much cheaper way to go and it worked great for us the first time. If you can find someone experienced, they should be able to look at a thumbnail sketch and turn it in to your dream home.

Hi
We bought our plans through Global House plans ( they have pretty much the same inventory as eplans) and have been happy with them. In fact our builder was impressed with the detail. Our plan is traditional and was probably originally drawn 30 plus years ago. We have made lots of modifications but none major. If you have a decent contractor he should be able to sit down with the basics of your plan and answer most questions.

With the number of plans available at this point unless you have a very unique site, a unique vision for your house or special needs most on line home plans should work very well.

Just a little story- my office colleague and I are both building at the same time. We hired a very small custom builder. She hired a local builder that does a lot of subdivisions. We ordered our plans on line. She showed her builder a floor plan etc she liked and he drew the plans from there. Although our house will take 3 times as long as hers ( it's larger to begin with ) we have had ZERO issues with builder/plan. We are dried in at this point. On the other hand she moved in in July. She has had major issues from her washer and dryer space being inadequate in size to the well being drilled through her septic system. Your builder is key no matter the plan you choose.

PD

I used house plans I bought on line. the only problem I ran in to was that they were over-engineered for my area, but the building inspectors said that the plans now became my "code". I had to build the house to the plans even though the foundation was double what is normally required for my area. Also, the stairs did not meet code so we had to do some pretty major modifications to make them work.

Wow, it's all very interesting and helpful info. Thanks you guys. ccoombs1, you said that your plans were over-engeneered. And I am afraid that this might be the case for me too. But it was not a bad thing overall, right? I was not sure from what you wrote if it was a good or bad experience for you.

We had an architect draw ours up but I don't think it's necessary. We have friends who went to a well noted design firm that is about an hour from our homes and bought one of thier plans. Another friend bought thier plans off eplans and it ends up thier plan is from the same design firm! (actually almost the same house. LOL) Another friend bought thiers off another site and thier biggest problems have been with changes they've made to the plans. But they didn't have the site or anyone redraw anything, they just told the builder what they wanted and thier changes haven't always made it to every sub's set of plans. The only complaint I can find though with thier plans are they aren't drawn to scale. So when a wall looks tiny or big it may or may not actaully be. Where ours are drawn on the 1/4"=1' so I can take a ruler and know exactly how big my wall in question is. But that could have been their plan site, the architect that drew the plans, who knows.

We bought our plans drom an on-line site (I think dreamhomes.com). The plan was created by an architect based in Texas and the house was designed for a slab foundation - we live in VA, wanted a basement, and some mods to the floor plan. Used a local architect that came with the builder to make those mods. Builder also suggested mods like simpler roof line to make the house more affordable. Architect found issues with the original plan (such as garages not big enough, hallways not big enoug, closets not big enough) and fixed those.

There can be very big differences between your local building code and the place where the plans were designed. You also have to be very careful about the plans and the cost to build. For example - it is very easy to design steep/tapered roof pitches on paper - very costly to build.

I suggest the following: purchase the "not for copy" plans first so that you can study it and make sure it meets your needs. Using the Internet print outs does not provide enough detail. Use scale cutouts of furniture and place on the plan in the rooms to make sure they are big enough - 2D plans can be very deceiving. Once you have a plan that you like - find an architect. Then make a decision of purchasing the "for copy" plans and/or the CAD software version of the plan. I made the mistake of buying the CAD and we could not use it.

Best of luck.

In my case overengineered wasn't a big deal since we are building the house ourselves, but we live in the south where the frost line is fairly shallow. The plans were generic and could be used up north too...so the footer was huge! We had to pay more for concrete and dig it quite a bit bigger, but it wasn't a huge expense. The biggest problem was the stairs in the plans did not meet local code. They would not fit in the space provided because the run was too short. We had to bump the end of the stairs out about 15" into the kitchen area. It actually worked out OK in the end though. I rearranged some cabinets and butted them into the bump-out so it looked like it was planned that way.

This is new to me