PG, The only online plans I have seen are the ones posted on this forum. I have not searched for any myself. I knew that was not going to be the route for us to take. I have learned that our site must be considered as one important factor in the building process.

We did! I haven't seen the finished product from him yet but so far, I am absolutely thrilled with the design and can't wait to have it built.

Now that I have a bit more time, I wanted to add some more detail to this.

I started off looking at online plans. I must have saved 50 of them to my Pinterest board. I also perused this forum, and read every thread I could that said "Has anyone built the (fill in the blank) plan?".

I must have said "This is it! This is THE plan!" about 7 or 8 times. Each time, the more I looked at the plan in greater detail, the more I realized it wouldn't work for our family for some reason or another. The last IT plan I found, I posted here. Got a lot of really good feedback about why it really wasn't a very good plan. Got a private message from a very helpful member with awesome information, including contact information for an architect on this board that would be very helpful.

So, not having anything to lose and lots to gain, I reached out to said architect, who was indeed very helpful with tons of information about design, links to threads, links to homes he'd designed remotely, etc. And thus, my dream home concept was born.

The way I look at it is this: I *could*, in theory, order a home plan online. And work with the online architect firm to fiddle with the plan to make it work better for our family (at a not insignificant cost). And there may be 50 or 60 of those same homes built across the US every year, and that may work just fine for lots of people.

But I didn't want "just fine". I wanted my perfect home. So I'm working with an awesome architect who is creating something custom, and beautiful, and fits my family's needs perfectly, and fits the land we're building on, and looks like it belongs, and is truly one-of-a-kind.

So...that's a novel, but gives a bit more information on my journey from online stock plan to architect awesomeness :) :) :)

Celina, so happy for you. Hope you share the final product? Your journey to seek the right plan for your family is very similar to my own.

It's a huge bother building a house, whether it's a truly "custom" one or one that is one that the builder has built many times but has a few adaptations to make it appear a bit different. Just read all the threads about being totally overwhelmed at all the choices of paint, light fixtures, cabinet pulls, bathroom fixtures, tile etc. There are a LOT of decisions to be made even if ones builder only gives one 2-3 choices on each item. And it's expensive. Buying an existing house is nearly always less expensive than a new-build.

So, why compromise on something this big? It's not a dress or a sweater or a pair of shoes that will "work" even if not exactly what one wants! It's your HOME! Maybe you move every 5-7 years - I don't know - but many people post here that this is to be their "forever" home. Forever is a long, long time for a young couple (and virtually all these people are young couples with young children). So, one is going to hate the traffic flow through the kitchen "forever"?

Get it right the first time and get what YOU want, not what some builder has decided is a conglomeration of what 500 people want.

Anglo “Buying an existing house is nearly always less expensive than a new-build.” In my experience, this is perhaps more true if the home does not need to be altered and meets the new owners needs. Those so called “small” modifications often result in a domino effect with expensive and larger alternations than expected. Further, it is often the case that ‘resale’ homes are located in more desirable locations (being closer to city center) and thus will be as expensive or more than building new. In Ottawa, it is often the choice between new Home on very small 40x100 lot, further away from the centre core or an older home, bigger lot, nice trees and much closer in. In the latter case, the Home will be more expensive and most likely will need upgrades etc.

ARG... lol how did I guess it was you (:

I'm in the US, PG, and all I know about Canada property is from watching Property Brothers, i.e. NOTHING!

It is true that if the house is in an established, highly desirable close-in location, it may be more expensive than a new build which will be to hell and gone. But at least in my city, there is still a large stock of older houses that can be bought for less and will involve a much shorter commute.

I'm not sure if my opinion counts, as I am 'D- None of the above'. I spent years looking at online plans for our rural property in SC. I couldn't find anything that spoke to me. We have a view out the back, so I looked at waterfront plans, which got me closer, but still no-go. Meanwhile, I developed my skills at SketchUp so that I could 'tweak' the online plans to suit. That didn't work either, so I started doing my own designs (100's of them). I even built several scale models, and bought dollhouse furniture to get a feel for the space. Picture a 60 y/o guy in overalls playing with a dollhouse! After a lot of effort and research, I developed my plan and built it.

To sum up, I couldn't find a stock plan I liked, so I went with a custom design. Our house is plain and simple, but performs exactly as planned. It's over-built and very energy efficient. It surpasses code in every way. After living here several years, I can't think of anything that I would change, at least within our tight budget. Re-sale? Not so much, I imagine, but we're near retirement and don't want to (and can't afford!) to move again. No, I'm not a builder, designer, or architect. Yes, I am crazy.

Hi again Anglo I found a difference when living in the Usa. Re-sale homes were typically less expensive than new, this was surprising to me. In my neck of the world, homes, hence subdivisions, originated in centre cores usually close to rivers. But as population grew, homes extended further away from the (downtown area). So the closer to the core, the more expensive and in many many instances, the 1.5 mil $ tear down home is purchased for land value only. One pays extra for living close to Downtown, mature neighborhood, trees, completed landscapes, eaves throughs put on the house and developed basements etc.

@muscreek you became your is architect, builder etc that is so awesome and I am sure many pioneers did the same. Also, you must have a lot of talent, determination and patience to accomplish this. We also tried designing our own house but simply did not have the talent, knowledge etc to put it together.

"Well, get that worthless architect off his butt..."

It's not me!