Home Design Softwares

[John Woodrich]

So far I have gotten by pulling building permits the last 10 years with graph paper and walk through inspections with the building official.  Building officials have been happy of our plans to tackle a full gut that they have helped us along the way and may have been lax on what they are used to seeing.  We had a software we played with in the past we used between ourselves to show "before and after" but used it mostly to settle a debate as to who had the better plan.  This software is lost anyhow so looking for new.

We are doing more deals now and I would like to get a software where I can design floor plans and my wife can tackle the design work.  There are many software programs out there, do any of you use any of them or recommend them?

I don't need anything that shows architectural detail, I can talk my way through that pretty quickly and could add supports to floor plan layouts.  I am looking for something I can present with a building permit that looks professional and represents my experience better in my past projects.

Thanks,

John Woodrich