![]() One $495 program includes more than 1,500 sample plans and thousands of doors, windows, lighting and other furnishings that users can drop into virtual rooms. In the past year, Chief Architect Inc., one of the two software companies that dominate the home-design-software market, rolled out three new programs under its Better Homes and Gardens brand. In contrast to computer-assisted design programs of the early 1990s, which were cumbersome and often crude, the latest programs feature realistic graphics, automatic processes for complex steps like adding cabinets, and thousands of materials, textures and even landscaping plants to choose from. Even as the housing market cools, people are still putting money into their homes, especially kitchens and bathrooms. The complications come as companies have been rolling out new lines of design-it-yourself software, in part a response to unprecedented spending on home remodeling, maintenance and repairs: $215 billion in 2005, up from $199 billion in 2004, according to the Census Bureau. (They ultimately put a master bedroom upstairs.) When people draw up their own designs, it helps them focus on what they want, he said, but sometimes "locks them in" to a single idea. ![]() Her builder, Peter Lehrer of Artistic Renovations LLC in nearby Seven Hills, quickly drew up three new plans. ![]() "Being able to visualize it in a computer program is very different from when it translates into physical space," she said. Then she presented them to her builder - and learned with dismay that the bathroom she envisioned was too far from the main plumbing lines and its placement would interfere with a staircase. Jessa New spent about five hours drawing up a plan for two children's bedrooms and a bathroom in a second-story addition to her 1925 Craftsman bungalow in Oberlin, Ohio. Homeowners "can draw to their heart's content, but that doesn't mean it's legal or it's buildable," said Ben White, vice president of Benvenuti & Stein Inc., a design and construction firm in Evanston, Ill. Homeowners can spend hours on a design, only to be told they've taken out a key beam or put in a toilet where there are no pipes. ![]() But the growing popularity of the products is making them a point of tension between builders and their clients. If used properly, the do-it-yourself products can save thousands of dollars in architects' fees on a major project. A slew of sophisticated software for home design has recently hit the market, allowing homeowners embarking on a remodeling project to plot changes from shingle styles to window placement and even see how shadows fall across the porch at different times of the day. ![]()
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