We also looked at hundreds of designs. Nothing met our requirements. And an architect's fee was not in the budget.

We ended up working with a designer. You can hire your own or if you have a builder in mind, sometimes they have an in-house designer. In our case, we had already pretty much decided on our builder and used their in-house designer; her time was built into the cost of the house. I've had friends who hired their own designer for about $2000-$3000.

The process took several months. Basically I scetched a very rough sketch of what we had in mind (floor plan wise) and she drafted up plans. Then we worked on it and took it back to her for suggestions. We met with her every week or two - whenever an issue came up. We just kept working with her until the plan seemed perfect to us. Once it got to that stage, the builder gave us a bid to build it and when we accepted the bid, the builder's draftsman drew up the plans and we submitted them to the county for a permit.

The end result is a unique house that flows, that "fits" our lot and the setting, and we are very happy with the result.

These plans were a bit different than the run of the mill house plans. We liked several of them and combined some things we liked and some of our own ideas and then had an engineer and srchitectural assistant draw up the plans.

Here is a link that might be useful: Architectural house plans

We also worked with a designer. He is actually the owner of the lumber yard we used to purchase our house supplies. That was part of the agreement, we go his design services free, but had to buy the bulk of our supplies from him. We had a rough idea of what we wanted, we also have acreage and could build as big or small of a house as we wanted. We worked with him over 3 months and tweaked things as we needed. He likes to design first with just paper and pencil, drawing somewhat to scale and once we were pretty set on what we wanted, he gave it to his computer person, who put in on a plan design program. We would then make changes on the prints with red pencil and she would change them on the computer.

Once we had a plan we were happy with, we put it out for bids to our builder, a plumbing and heating expert, an electrician and our lumber yard owner. They all submitted estimates for their particular area of expertise, with the lumber guy estimating things like carpet, tile and cabinetry. He wasn't supplying all those things, but had enough knowledge to be able to estimate it. I should say that I am GC-ing my own build, so the builder just submitted his bid for the time and materials he would supply. He didn't get the subs lined up and thus, we didn't have to pay overhead on those invoices.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Blog

I have to second that "architectural house plans" site. We designed our own house, but I got my inspiration from one of the homes from that website. They had a lot of different layouts and floorplans that I hadn't seen anywhere else, and I looked, a LOT.

What is the going rate for an architect in your area? I found that sometimes designers wanted more for their time than architects. I ended up with an architect, just because you use them to draw your plans you are not obligated to use them for anything else. Find one willing to take on limited services. A good architect will save you more than their fee, but then I can demonstrate this of most "good" professional services.

If you get a custom shirt made, you don't go to the fabric shop. You don't get your taxes done by the office supply shop. Why would you go to the lumber yard for a custom house design?

We are in process of using an architect to design our custom home. It looks like it will be costing us about 30k for his services and he is still not done. He is based in Wilmington, NC. Although I am very happy with what he has done for us so far, if we had to do it again, I probably would have considered a design/build. You need to find a builder that offers those services. That seems to be a cheaper option for many.

zoe52, what services are you getting for $30K. For that price, I hope you are getting more than a set of plans. I paid my architect for just what I needed to pull the permit, nothing else. I found designers willing to charge me more for less money, and I also paid a boatload less than $30K for a set of plans.

We developed our themes (open, light, curves) and rough sketched the floor plan. We created a notebook with magazine pictures and pictures of houses we took from the outside and during open houses. We organized the notebook by exterior front, exterior back, and by each interior room. We found a house that looked similar to the one we wanted and knocked on the door to see if the owner knew the designer. If the house is not complex, you should be able to get a floor plan and elevations for $1500-2000. Even though you don't have your finances, you will need to have some idea of total price and amenities as that will significantly impact the square footage. Remember that two stories generally gives more square footage for the same money. With less that 3300 feet, however, you may not be able to stretch it much.

Ken: Just forgot to mention that the price we are paying also includes a full landscape design (his wife, conveniently, is a landscape designer). My architect is also helping with color and materials and is designing some of the interior spaces (at least anything that is attached to the house surfaces). He built us a full model of the house so we could see it when we came to see him in August. So all of the above is reflected in the total price.

We started in January with him from scratch. We had no idea what we wanted other than an active solar home with European styling. It has been a rather long process as the architect we are using lives near our new home rather than here. (12 hour drive away) So a lot of this design process has had to take place by phone and email. When we did visit with him several times, we ended up being there half a day to cover everything. I will say that he really listens to everything we like and has incorporated it into our design trying to remain with in certain restraints. I am very happy with what he has come up with. Just hope it works as well as it looks on paper!

My DH didn't really look at plans well until mid summer after several drafts and we had to do additional changes in August before our last visit. I could have killed him for waiting so long to really look at everything. I am sure that bumped our price up as our architect had to redo a good portion of the design.

We are at the point now where our architect has submitted our plans to one builder for an approximate estimate. We asked him to wait until we get the estimate before sending the plans out to a structural engineer who will be finishing them up to blue print format.

At this point we are waiting to see how much we will need to spend to build our dream home. In the meantime, I am getting this house ready to go on the market this coming spring. We hope to sell this house first, if possible, move down there and rent another one while it is being built. That way we will have a better idea of how much money we will have to build it. DH may still have to travel back and forth here for a year until he retires.

Just hoping our real estate market doesn't tank before then. We have a certain amount that we would like on this home. If not, we will wait until the market gets better and build a few years from now. We already own the land and do not have to build in any frame of time.

Moo-I, too, literally looked at thousands of plans online and probably have $100's worth of books for YEARS. I didn't like any of them!! I have been going to the parade of homes in a large town nearby for several years. And when I walked into one particular home, I KNEW it was the one. I still looked and looked at online plans and in books, but ultimately, none stacked up to the one on the parade. We ended up contacting the builder and he put us in touch with the architect that drew up the original plans. We purchased the plans from him and had him make a few minor modifications for about $2000. A bargain compared to any other alternative. The house is actually turning out far better than the original! So I strongly recommend looking into the parades in your area. Those homes are less likely to be "cookie cutter" and it really helps to see the actual house! Good luck!

Have you considered DIY? You probably need to be an architecture buff, but if you are it can be a real thrill!

I bought architectural drafting software, came up with an initial floor plan and took it to an architect whose work I respected. He kindly and gently pointed out all the stupid mistakes I had made, and then I made another plan. Long story short, the third plan is under construction now. We expect to move in before Christmas, and I'd gladly do it all over again.

LauraG

I've looked a thousands of the house plans in books from the grocery store and the ones that come up on web searches and I'm not satisfied.

Have you walked any new communities? I've been getting emails from some saying they now build on your lot. If you find one you like, you may be able to approach them.

Hubby & I looked at a lot of houses, both new & used plus house plans. We found one modular company (below) that we liked their plans but couldn't find land. We finally found a community we loved the floor plans & decided to buy. Had we found land, I'm not sure if we'd go modular or have someone customize one of their designs.

Finding the house is very stressful & time consuming. Took us from February until August.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ritz Craft modulars