Stay with the property. The home should fit the land rather than plopping something generic down and trying to alter the land to make it work.

Then start with your priority list of must haves and then your like to haves. If you want a sunny kitchen, you know that it can't be an interior room.

Then take the list to the architect and schedule a site visit for him. Your planning session will go smoothly and you'll have something that fits your family's needs and looks appropriate to the land that it inhabits.

I suspect it is unlikely that the cost to build a house in Vermont is high enough to make a kit or prefab home attractive and the design options would be very limited.

You've already gotten some good advice here. We looked into kits and modulars, but didn't find much savings over a site-built home of equal quality. Modulars do save time, if you're in a hurry.

What we wound up doing was designing and building a house for our land and climate. I spent a lot of time planning the siting and orientation of the house for the view and topography. I started by looking at waterfront plans, as our view is in the back, much like waterfront. Our land has the perfect amount of slope for a walk-out basement. Our climate is hot in the summer, so I made sure we didn't have a lot of solar gain through west windows. I blended all of those factors with our wants and needs for living space.

Despite our mild SC climate, I decided to build a very energy efficient home, since we are not wealthy, and will be retiring on a small fixed income soon. I spent a lot of time on greenbuildingtalk.com and other sites, learning everything I could about various high quality building systems. I decided that ICF was best for me, one old man, working alone. There are many other ways to build a good house, of course, but I would have had to bring in more help. The resulting house is very snug and comfortable, with tiny utility bills. Yes, it cost more up-front, but will be cheap to feed, and so much more comfortable than the leaky houses I've lived in all my life. If I were building in VT, I'd build the best envelope possible within budget constraints.

As for designing programs, I designed my entire house using Sketch-Up, a free CAD program. Once you learn it, it's fun and easy. I would recommend doing a lot of research, then play with floor plans, and post plans here to get feedback. Eventually, you should be ready to go to an architect (if you so desire) to have proper plans drawn. I did not use an architect, as it simply wasn't in the budget, but I also spent 6 years on research and playing with designs. Some areas will require professional plans and engineering stamps; others will just about take a sketch on a cocktail napkin. Get to know your local building authority early on so you will get started off on the right foot.

While I think modulars can be a good idea, there are caveats. For one, people still equate modulars with mobile homes, which they are NOT. It could affect resale value, though. Like all homes, there are different quality levels. Friends just had a modular built in NC. I was not impressed with the quality, and there were a lot of issues and delays with site-built work such as the garage and porch. The 3 month time frame stretched to 7 months. As with any builder, you have to really need to do your homework to be sure you are getting a quality product.

I would be surprised if Vermont has adopted a state wide residential building code (I haven't built there recently) but there is a 2015 Vermont Residential Building Energy Code Handbook and some areas may have adopted the Stretch Code too.

@mushcreek - thanks for the great info. Any suggestions on learning Sketch-Up? Websites or tutorials or is it best to just play around with it? thanks again!

I'm not very computer-literate, but I just messed around with it on my own. I do know that there is a vast community out there using it, and you can import thousands of images that others have drawn, such as furniture. I imagine there is a lot of support- google is your friend!

I liked Harwood Podcast's youtube videos for Sketchup tutorials.

However, if you're looking at kits or modular homes, your options are going to be so limited that learning to draw something up on your own isn't going to help you a whole lot. It can be fun to dream, though.

Are you in the design business? Have you designed residences before which have been constructed? If not, your best starting place may be to consult with someone experienced in what you want to do. Good luck with your project.

I recommend to my clients to budget some $$ for books. The internet is great for spot info but for comprehensive look at something (like house design) books are a great place to start. For example, if I want to learn all about the American Civil War, it'd be best to read a book on the whole war and then go to the internet to fill in any gaps of learn more about a battle or a General. This thread listed a bunch of great books and there's another embedded thread in there with other suggestion: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3281434/book-suggestions?n=10

Also, there's a lot more to design than getting a CAD program and all of the creativity and imagination will still come out of your head. Another great thread here (also started by cpartist) about what makes good house design which might help you: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3285825/what-makes-a-house-have-good-design?n=39

Good luck with your project. Exciting times!

I highly recommend all the books listed on the thread. I went on a two week cruise and read through many them on the cruise and even after I'm still referring to them.

Another thing I recommend is going to any and all open houses you can find, both new homes and resales. Walking through them will help you to figure out what works for you and what doesn't.

Also sit down and make a list of your must haves, your might want to haves and your pie in the sky haves. Additionally think of how you truly live and not the fantasy. Build for the reality and not the fantasy.

For example, in my fantasy, I'm going to have catered parties for 20 and need a formal dining room. The reality is I'll invite small groups for casual get togethers. We'll barbecue and eat on the lanai or at the kitchen table on paper plates. Since my reality doesn't need a dining room, I didn't put one in my house.

Additionally my reality says we spend very little time in the bedroom, so we made it just large enough for the king size bed, two night stands and DH's dresser.

I spend the majority of my time in my studio, the living room and the kitchen (in that order). DH spends the majority of his time outside, in the living room or in his study. Hence those are the rooms we are investing the most in.

If a room is barely used, say only a couple of times a year, could another space take the place?

Before you start with a CAD program, I'd read through some of the books, especially the Hirsch book for how to start designing, and then think in terms of general spaces as to what you need and where in relation to one another you'd like them. Only once you've played on paper with a pencil, and have a general idea, would I then think of CAD programs.

Additionally if you do not have good design skills, I'd suggest hiring a design professional.

There are good SketchUp tutorials on Youtube. The program is intuitive but too powerful to learn just by experimenting. All CAD requires learning one tool or function at a time.

Being able to design in a creative and experienced matter has nothing with one's facility with a CAD program. The old computer mantra still holds, "garbage in, garbage out!"

Agree with Virgil. A CAD program will not provide one with creativity, as that will only come from ones head.

Give me the latest state of the art word processing program with all the bells and whistles and it's not going to turn me into a JK Rowling. But like a word processing program, a CAD program is great for developing a concept and exploring options but the underlying creative force behind that exploring is still the brain. There's no dialog box that pops up saying "Try a roof with a gable in the center"!

Interestingly, most "pros" (whatever that term means!) do the initial conceptualizing with a pen. Architect Thom Mayne observed "I prefer the looseness of a pencil over the precision of a computer" and Peter Cook (another architect) noted "I've noticed the computer sometimes leads to rather bland decision making; now anybody can design a wobbly bobbly building".

Now that we have put CAD in its proper place, i.e., just a tool to be used to help explore and record creative design efforts, it may be useful to mention that there are both 2-D and 3-D CAD programs on the market. Two-dimensional programs may be useful for studying floor plan alternatives, site plans and the like. These are essentially drafting tools and not really very useful design tools. Three-dimensional programs do what 2-D programs do, but also allow explorations of the exterior massing, form, elevations and, most importantly, perspectives which allow the user to visualize the design implications of their floor plan studies. These programs will also allow the same visualization options for interior spaces. As every experienced designer knows strong design solutions are only achieved when one studies both interior plans and exterior massing simultaneously and comparatively , looking at the effects of decisions on both interiors and exteriors. Said differently, every interior decision affects the exterior; every exterior decision affects the interior. Thus, it's impossible to have a strong design when one spends the majority of effort studying one aspect--interiors or exteriors--and a less than commensurate amount of time studying the other aspect. Consumers and first time house designers typically spend virtually all their time attempting to create the "perfect" interior, while spending comparatively little time exploring exterior alternatives and the effects on the exterior of their interior decisions. Getting back to CAD programs, 3-D programs are somewhat more complicated to learn than two-dimensional programs, depending on individual program input methodology. Some programs build their 3-D capability from first inputting 2-D information, while other programs (such as Sketch-Up) start out working in 3-D from the outset. Hope this helps.

I know I'm a dinosaur, but...there's graph paper, ruler, pencil! If you're looking at specific plans, but want to modify them, post 'em, along with your desired changes -- and brace yourself for an avalanche of comments.