Has anyone ever purchased house building plans?

[Immadismom]

DH and I are planning to have a custom home built as our retirement home. We are in the very early stages of planning. We likely won’t even begin for 4 years at the soonest. I’ve done some quick Google searches and it seems that the main sites that pop up all have he exact same plans, just different website names, so I have no clue how reputable these site are. I just want to browse to get ideas of what we would like, and if we happen to fine something we like, I would like to purchase a set of plans.

 

[tileman]

We built our house back in 2004
Being in the building trade we just used a local architect to help us out
We kinda drawn out what we was looking for and they put it to prints

 

[tvguy]

I have not. But I would be concerned with the plans meeting local or regional building codes.
Some areas around here require fire sprinklers, some here ban fireplaces. And here in California, as of the first of the year new housings must have solar panels.

 

[bluezy]

We used a custom builder to build our home 15 years ago. They had an in-house architect. We told him what we were looking for in a home and he pulled up a few different plans of homes they had done in the past. We started with one of those and made all the changes we wanted until we were happy. We had purchased a few inexpensive books of house plans just to look through for fun and ideas in the year or so before we built but knew we'd either need to hire an architect or use the in-house architect to make sure everything was to code.

 

[nkereina]

I would first find a custom home builder and let them facilitate the process for you. If you find plans you like, it doesn't mean you'd find a builder in your area willing to build it. So the first step should be securing the builder you want to work with, and letting them guide you.

I have friends who found the perfect plot of land, jumped on purchasing it, but didn't do their due diligence with a builder first. They had difficulty finding a builder even willing to build on the land, and when they eventually did find one, it was going to cost five figures just to even get utilities to the land. It was a much more involved process than they ever imagined.

 

[firefly_ris]

We didn't build a new home, but we added a second story to ours and just hired a local architect.

 

[RangerPooh]

My husband and I did this with our first home in 2004. We built it ourselves (tools in hand built it ourselves), so before building we looked for plans that met the state building codes. We also ran the plans by a friend who was a building inspector before running them by the city building inspector. Sine we did the construction the design wasn't anything fancy, so that might have helped.

When my in-laws were looking to build a new plan we looked online for various plans that met their needs. There's a lot that appear to be carbon copies of each other just under different company names.

 

[TCRAIG]

If you just want ideas - you may be better off going ‘old school’ and go to a bookstore and get some house plan books there

 

[Disneybuckeye]

When we bought our lake house it was a dump. We paid someone to knock it down and haul it away. I had found some pictures of what I wanted the outside to look like and I put together a design with graph paper of what I wanted the inside to look like. We sent this info to an architect and he created plans for us that met code. DH actually GC'd the project, but the foundation, walls, roof, and few other things were done by a good friend of his who is a retired builder.

We designed the deck on graph paper and were able to get the permit with just that drawing. We then gave it to our deck builder and he brought it to life with not specific plans, but he builds most of the docks on the lake and knows how to build it to meet code and be able to support the boat in the lift and the jet skis in their lift.

This way we built what we wanted and it actually was pretty painless. I am sure we saved money with DH being the GC and we did the trim work and flooring ourselves.

When we built our new main home last year we were in a development and had to choose a house plan. From there we worked with their in house architect to tailor it to our wishes.

Where you buy property will determine your options to proceed.

Good luck

 

[Immadismom]

To add some more details, my in-laws are purchasing 15 acres of land about 45 minutes from where DH and I currently live. They will be building on part of this land, and we will build on another part of the land in several years to have our retirement home there.

The plot of land already has utilities run to it and has been approved for building (Seller had utilites run, etc. but now is selling as he’s divorcing). I’m sure whomever in-laws hire to build, we will likely use the same builder, unless there are issues with them. I just want to start looking at floor plans to get ideas of what we like & don’t like, etc. I guess if I find something on one of the websites I’ve seen, I can just save a pic & then get with someone local to put it to paper.

 

[firefly_ris]

To add some more details, my in-laws are purchasing 15 acres of land about 45 minutes from where DH and I currently live. They will be building on part of this land, and we will build on another part of the land in several years to have our retirement home there.

The plot of land already has utilities run to it and has been approved for building (Seller had utilites run, etc. but now is selling as he’s divorcing). I’m sure whomever in-laws hire to build, we will likely use the same builder, unless there are issues with them. I just want to start looking at floor plans to get ideas of what we like & don’t like, etc. I guess if I find something on one of the websites I’ve seen, I can just save a pic & then get with someone local to put it to paper.

I think that's a good idea... this way you can show them a couple of examples, say "I like Trait X about this one but not Trait Y, and I like Trait Z on this one" and they can come up with something that combines some of the aspects you like from a few different ideas into something that will work for you. If you try to just pick a full fledged plan from online, you might not like certain aspects... I figure if it's something you're actually living in, and you're building it from scratch so there's no existing limitations (like our 1963-previously-a-rancher), might as well do it exactly how you like.

 

[tcufrog]

The best place to get advice on building a home are the GardenWeb Forums. https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/build It's impressive how knowledgable the members are there. When we were planning to build a home I got some amazing advice there.

 

[MeggyScumEsquire]

We drew ours on graph paper - we had dozens of revisions. Then took it to a local building co. And they made it in to plans/tweaked it. So happy with it - exactly what we wanted. We've been in for 2 years and wouldn't change a thing.