I don't know about HGTV's but Better Homes and Garden's Powerful Home Design Software is awesome. My friend used it to design their home and then loaned it to me to work on our remodel. I love it! Both builders that we contacted to do our work were really impressed with the plans. Here I am even able to use the plans to get permits without paying hefty fees that a contractor/builder would do. It is an easy program to learn too. Hope this helps!

I recommend Chief Architect's Home Designer products. I've used Home Designer Architectural. You might be able to use Home Designer Suite, which is half the price. You have to be willing to invest some time to learn the programs, but for me it was fun to learn. They have a great library of information, video tutorials, etc. They also have a good forum if you're stuck on something. For remodeling and decorating, you can create objects of the exact dimension you're interested in, import pictures, and visualize your space very effectively. You can download a trial version of any of their programs to see what might meet your needs. https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/products/ I've seen a lot of positive reviews of SketchUp which may be free, but I haven't used it myself. Good luck!

Thanks for your response! I actually just purchase Realtime Landscape Pro. It was only $100. I purchased it because the deck design portion got great ratings, and I hope to do a lot of that, but it also seems to have lots of nice features for the price. I'll probably move up to the "Architect" version of Realtime if I really like this. The Architect version is compatible with Sketchup, so I feel like having the basic, free Sketchup, Realtime, and (still have) Smartdraw will cover all my bases. I'm still a very small landscaper/remodeler, so this should be fine for a while. To answer your questions, I'd like to spend as little time as possible learning the software. I like Realtime because, for instance, it adds up the deck dimensions and tells you how much of everything you need. It's automatic whereas Smartdraw and Sketchup seem very manual. Realtime also has leaps and bounds more plant/tree options to choose from than Smartdraw and the Architect version will list all of the characteristics of each plant if you want as well, along with many other nice features.

For anyone curious, here is a YouTube playlist showing the capabilities of Home Designer Pro ($495). Suite ($99) is very similar and still fully 3D. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqOuoZKrHpQ&list=PL7J4ch5cuz99pBDuLJ5a8Nt6l3DSmTTCW&index=1 I respond to questions at the Home Designer forum and find many people are using the software to build a 3D model of the house. They want to see what many Architects and designers seem unable to provide -- what is the house going to look like? Many people find it difficult to translate a 2D floorplan and elevations into a three dimensional representation of their house. They often want to experiment with colors, place furniture and other objects inside. Some use it to meet HOA requirements, or for small projects where construction document requirements are minimal.