I have used Chief Architect Home Designer Suite 9 quite a bit. I don't remember what I paid, but I think it was $59, or maybe $99. If you search here for ecranny you can see some if the designs I made. What I like best about it is you can generate a 3D walkthrough that looks like you are walking around the house with a camcorder. Another one I use is Google Sketchup 7 (the free version). With this I can do detailed designs, but this is more of a CAD tool so I use it mainly for doing cabinet construction plans.

I downloaded Home Designer Suite 9 from Amazon a few weeks back for like $75. I can't say ENOUGH about how helpful it's been. Before that I was spending hours working on elevations on graph paper but I wanted to see how the different configurations looked from various viewpoints, not just from straight on. Plan for it to take at least a day to get used to it (the first day I was cursing myself for spending the money as I thought I'd never get used to it) but once that passed it really has been invaluable.

I also used Home Designer Suite 9 (also downloaded from Amazon) and it really helped a lot. We are almost done - only the appliances and backsplash left to do. My final product is looking really close to my 3D on HD 9.

The Ikea home planner can be downloaded for free. You do have to use their cabinets. There are some bugs which make it less than user friendly but one can get up and running in just a few minutes. The 3D visualization is very nice.

thanks so much

Just found Lowes has a free designer on their website. Used the kitchen one - pretty good. Cabinet choices are limited to standard sizes but MUCH better than Ikea. You do get counter, floor, wall choices as well though.

I bought 3d Home Architect Kitchen and Bath Designer today. I am totally stuck. I am having a hard time even getting my walls in. Actually, I am having a hard time getting even seeing what I have tried to put in, on my screen! I hope you have better luck than me.
Where are the instructions??

Google SketchUp is free and pretty powerful. Also, there are lots of components such as appliances that can be downloaded and incorporated into your design.

There are online tutorials. I had no experience with design programs (but lot's of computer experience) and I had to listen to the first 3 or 4 a few times to get started. But, once I got the basics down I got addicted.

Here's a picture I exported from SketchUp

and here's the real thing