Did y'all just tell a draftsman what you wanted and let him go? Bring a set of CAD plans to him with changes that you'd make? Draw your own?


We're starting to get some plans together and see a lot that have certain aspects we love but we can't find anything online that checks all the boxes. We know what we want. 1 story. 3 car garage. 4BR with master on back of the house. Master bath with separate vanities, walk-in shower and tub. private toilet. His/her separate closets with mine being reinforced as a storm shelter/safe room. Study/office/hunting room for gun safe, taxidermy, ect., 2 other full baths and a 1/2 bath. Covered porch along back (maybe partially screened with TV and fireplace) and other part for grilling, darts, ect. Pool with access to a bathroom on porch so won't have to go inside.

Appliances we know we want a gas cooktop and a double oven. Fridge...as long as it keeps stuff cold.

Wired shop plumbed for sink and toilet. Lean to on back or side and at least 1 roll up door and metal roof.

What tips can y'all give of things you would have done if you did it again?

I’d just draw a rough idea of the floor plan and go over it with the draftsman. For the safe room, you may want to look into it being made out of armorcore panels and security mesh if the room is on a crawlspace or you don’t have enough space for CMU.

One way is go online to house plan sites , find one you like , then go to a draftsman and let him modify and change as needed to suit you . Any good draftsman can take a pic of the front, the basic floor plan and size and draw a set the builder can use.

We found plans online and tailored it to what we liked by using a draftsman.

I kinda wished we went with 2x6” framing but we have standard 2x4”

I wired my garage for 220, in the event that we get an electric car 20 years down the road. I put multiple fans in my garage that are operated by switch. Get larger garage doors.

We sprayed our whole house with spray foam.

I think it’s standard now but we have a water junction hub in our garage, like an electric box, so we can shut certain things off.

Wood burning fireplace on the screened in porch, which we really like.

Get gas hookup for a grill outside. (Didn’t do that, wish I had)

I put a large standby generator with 1k propane tank for power outages.

Where ever we put a tv we put the coax and plugs up high where they would be behind TV.

I wish we would have been better with picking a closet for electronics.

I prewired the house for security cameras.

I wish we would have put more water bibbs outside.

Depending on how far you are from the road, I’d use larger pipe to supply water to the house if it’s on city/county water. We used 1.5” pipe. Never have problems with pressure.

Tankless water heater.

The safe room we have I wish i would have wired it with a camera outside the door so I could see the surrounding area without opening door.

Outside lights….put a switch in the bedroom, in the event you could turn them on if needed. Same way with bedroom lights. Be able to turn it off without having to get out of bed. (Didn’t do either.)

I also reinforced all my exterior doors and you aren’t supposed to be able to kick them in. (Although your doors are only as strong as your windows)

Wife loves her pot filler over the stove.

Laundry room we have out ironing board built in the cabinetry so it’s out of the way.

We have a large front porch, I wish we would have put fans up.

DONT install a flush microwave or an over the stove. We have a built out shelf in our kitchen for the microwave..so when it does you pull it out of the hole and replace it. Not having to do all the carpentry or installation.

My builder also ran double lines for coax and cat 5 cable in the house. That way if there was a problem with one you had a backup.

If you have time go to a few new neighborhoods where houses are under construction/ dried in walls up. We got great ideas from this. Awesome ideas above. 3 ft doors wide hall way exterior door in garage sucks opening the big door just to walk out. Covered patio. Make sure the refrigerator spot is wide. I’ve seem where the side rub and it ain’t coming out easy.AC unit on the none driveway side.

Visiting houses under various stages of construction is very helpful.

Here’s my house plans.

Home build

2,600sqft 4/3 single story
Simple roof line
Zero or minimal roof penetrations


No carpet
ADA friendly
Storm room accessible via wheel chair
Hidden room for Morgan.
Mud/laundry room with dog wash station & floor drain and solid surface floor like sheet vinyl or garage epoxy retractable clothes line
Catch pan/drain for dishwasher
Large overhangs to keep weather off
Have one bathroom as a hall bathroom and accessible via a bedroom l
Zero entry shower
PVC trim in laundry and bathrooms
Outdoor shower
Large tub
Pocket door style baby/dog gate.
Conditioned well lit attic space with motorized lift/winch
X2 EV chargers
Whole house water filter in laundryroom
Soft close on everything
In unit dehumidifier
Exterior all light switch next to master bed
Underground gutter runs
Outlet in a closet with bottom 3” of door cut off for Roomba home
10’ ceilings
Screened in porch with ceiling fans.
Breeze block

Find plans online as others have said. If you can't find what you like, then you must have a pretty good idea of what you prefer anyway. Also, think back to friends houses or just houses you've been into in your past for ideas.

36 “ doors through out the home. You can draw out your own floor plan and have engineer draw it to specs.

Don’t put septic tank in back yard.

Make sure your builder and subcontractors know how to do framing and building envelope details to code and manufacture specifications because designers rarely give much detail on plans.

Slab or crawl space?
Doesn't sound like you want a full basement unless I missed something.

We started out years ago with grid paper and drew out exactly where and how big each room was gonna be, then had a guy draw them up. This was 1998 before a lot of internet programs.

I built houses for around 8 years, told wife to draw out what she had in her head, then I arranged her ideas into a manageable plan, then hired a draftsman to make it official. Lots of good ideas being tossed around. We went 2x6 walls, brick, vinyl clad doors and windows, vinyl on soffit and dog houses so outside of house is maintenance free except front door (mahogeny side lights and transom)

Doc, it ain't gonna feel like Alabamer if it's not a trailer.

I drew ours myself. We did a slab, barndominiom. 3 foot doors on every door in the house, zero steps. Zero entry shower, 10ft porch, 24x36 open garage. I sat down and drew ours out on posterboard. When it was finished, my builder said I made it too easy on him, lol.

Currently building my 3rd one right now.
I’ve drawn my own plans for the last 2.

This one:
Built on a slab, no steps whatsoever.
36” doors for all interior and exterior doors.
Grab bars in bathrooms and master bath shower (go ahead and laugh but non of us are getting any younger).
Smart water heater.
Large mud room/laundry room with 1/2 bath.
LED lighting everywhere, including flood lights and soffit lights.
Motion lights in garage and mud room
Door switches for closets.
Soft close on cabinets
ALL lower cabinets are DRAWERS, no getting down on hands and knees looking for something.
LED under cabinet lighting.
Pot filler over stove.
Extra large kitchen, can’t have a kitchen too big.
Safe room accessible from master BR only.
Mini splits in bonus room upstairs as well as master BR, no need heating and cooling bonus room when nobody is using it. No need in cooling entire house to the temp I like for comfortable sleeping.
Attic fan with thermostat.
Outlets with USB ports.

The wrong home designer will make your cost go up with wasted material.

I was a home builder for several years and the amount of wasted material due to design was significant. Some designers will not help you with practical design if you bring them your sketches. They just put it on paper and charge you a fee.

A good designer will help you with the finer points and guide you when your ideas may significantly increase cost.

Oh ya, and Aldeer will tell you that you’ll build this house for $105 per sqft Lolol.

Yeah. We’re getting our wish list together which is not fancy or extravagant. Just basic no frills stuff. Nice but practical but knowing that we won’t be able to do it all. Obviously we haven’t gotten to the stage of pricing things out but I’ve already had a few restless nights thinking about the $. Just trying to be wise.