I echo pretty much what everyone else has said. I am working with a designer and most importantly I knew the style and look that I wanted and the designer is helping achieve that look. Sometimes I buy from him, other times I buy on my own. We truly have a partnership and if I don't like something, I let him know. The good thing is that he has really tuned into my style and my likes and dislikes and I think that has made a huge difference. He charges by the hour and we have worked together so much that now sometimes he charges me and sometimes he does not. Essentially at this point, he averages out his hourly bill. The reason being I think is the fact that we have become friends and sometimes we get off topic and the time gets away from us. There are times when he will recommend something and I will decide to go against his advice because I really like something. He is also not a snob. He knows that sometimes I will buy new, from him or Direct Buy, CL or from the antique stores in our area. In the end his motto is that this is our house and he is there to help us achieve our vision. Finally, I once had an ID come in for a consultation from Calico Corners and we instantly didn't click but I admit I was intimidated and at first sort of went along with her recommendations. Fate intervened because I placed an order and it eventually went awry thankfully and once I cancelled the order I never worked with her again.

Just thought of something else, when reviewing schools. It's very important to look at the student's work. If you can look at work that's not displayed, even better : ) Disregard the greatness of the drawings and renderings by the Asian students -- they learned that back home : ) They also have a phenomenal educational/work ethic. Do look at their designs though. Pay most attention to the designs as you view student work, esp with regard to function and layout, which you're lucky to know a bit about already at this point -- not the execution of the drawings (although that may tell you something about the quality of the drawing and rendering classes). I'd recommend reading a couple of the introductory Interior Design textbooks for an overview of the field and also to learn the basics before starting any classes. 'Interiors' by Karla Nielson is another very good text used. And know that 'design' is only 20% of the project : ) Execution is everything. I'm sure you know that, already being degreed, your course load would be significantly reduced to get a BA.

kitschy, We used to have an 806 Sq Ft house. I had it fixed up so cute. Was like a little doll house. We really enjoyed living there. The cabinets were also from the late 40's early 50's because that is when the house was built and I am sure they were original. So many layers of paper behind things. I had to redo all the kitchen walls because too many layers of paper to get off nicely. Even olive green flocked. EEEEKKKK The house did not have plumbing to begin with and they stuffed a tiny bath into what we think was a large pantry or maybe it was just part of the kitchen. Leaving just a cupboard behind. Still the house was so fun to live in. We did enclose part of the front porch on three sides and put a washer out there. We could only use it in the summer then had to winterize it. Best of all it took me about an hour to clean the whole house and even do a good job of it. Gave me more time to explore the hills behind the house. The dog goat and calf and I would all go for a nice walk. Ah For The good old days. Chris

Chief Architect is the company name and their professional product. The one I use is $2690. With hindsight, I should have spent more time with the $495 Home Designer Pro but they did credit me the full price against Chief Architect. Their Home Designer is a series of programs from $99 to $495 with various degrees of additional function. They have a comparison of functions here: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/products/product-chooser.html They have a free trial so you can get an idea of how it works. Lots of videos with basic training to help you get started. Having two monitors or a second computer to run the video really helps get you started. There are lots of catalogs that are downloadable. If you want to see what a certain Owens Corning roof looks like on your 3-D view, you just download it. I am very familiar with Sketchup, use it several time a week, and it is great for many things. Can't imagine using it for this BUT it can be done. FWIW, if you are thinking about using sketchup for woodworking, buy this training video: http://www.tauntonstore.com/fine-woodworkings-google-sketchup-guide-for-woodworkers-basics-download-067125.html I spent a bunch of time looking at free Sketchup training, this is was priceless. Chief Architect imports things built in Sketchup into your house project. You build a piece of furniture in Sketchup and bring it in as an object in CA/HomeDesigner, and then you can see how it looks.