@Kendelle A,

If you give more details to the background of your situation, you might get more help.

"Extensive mold" is a huge red flag. Did you recently purchase this property? Was the mold disclosed? (If not, legal action may be appropriate.)

Or is a property you inherited? Is there sentimental value?

Or is a property that you already owned, and you've recently become aware of the mold issue?

Check your homeowner's insurance to know if you have any coverage for mitigation in your situation.

Remodeling can often times be more expensive than building new, so gutting the entire house, PLUS dealing with mold - what are you really saving?

Maybe a good first step would be to contact someone in your city or county's public health department for input and direction.

In cases like yours…experimenting on graph paper would be a good place to start to see how much you think you can do with the space you have…this will help you to know better if you may need to add ….beyond the existing layout…it seems to me that an architect would be the first expert to consult after firming up a list of your needs….

Keep in mind that the children’s needs …and yours….change over time…privacy being one of major things that may evolve..

I bought Chief Architect 15 years ago and still have the program and really enjoy playing with it, but I probably use excel more often than I use Chief Architect when I am just doing a basic floorplan. I do like the 3d rendering capabilities of Chief Architect.

I honestly don't know if there are better programs available today.

I am still a lover of a nice clean piece of paper and a sharp pencil.My drafting table is my favorite piece of furniture and I find graph paper makes doing to scale drawings simpler. I do many Ikea kitchens but have found the planner a real PITA to use. I am not really computer savvy with different software. I will answer here regarding this dilemma you will need a pro and the first step is to find out if the home can have an attic made for living space . Often old foundations and construction did not allow for attic living space to code.Then you get the pro to help for sure. I do agree a rebuild is proably cheaper then a major renovation like you are planning but sometimes I just like to bring life back to an old home . I happen to love renovating .

Thank you I’ll pull out the graph paper. As far as cost goes, my husband will be doing most of the work himself so we figured it would be less expensive and also much faster since we don’t have to wait on contracters and permits every step of the way.

You need permits regardless of who does the work. Check w your county, city, or town planning department. And as someone asked - if you have a mold problem, should you remodel?

Obviously some DIY can help hold costs down, but does DH have a day job? If so, this project will take a long time and in the meantime you are living with mold. Does he have experience with mold remediation? My husband has expert level DIY skills but we figured out years ago that it is a mistake not to hire some professionals as he couldn't work the day job and get everything done in the house in a timely manner. But maybe you're more patient than I am . . .

I would definitely look into hiring a professional architect or designer to look at your floor plan. Unless that is your or DH's occupation, there is no way you can approach their level of knowledge. The amount of work you're talking about is substantial and you can end up with a mediocre end result or a great end result with some help. You can enjoy a great end result for years to come and when you go to sell you will also reap the reward.

My husband rehabs houses to make them into rentals, he will be working full time on our home while we renovate. We have consulted with mold experts and have a remediation plan in place, that mostly consists of removing all drywall, HVAC, insulation and adressing our crawl space. We aren’t living in our home because the mold was making our children sick but we are blessed to have a guest cabin, although small at 200 sqft, to live in while we make our house livable. We never liked the floor plan but probably would have made do for a lot longer if we weren’t told that removing all walls was necessary to remediate the mold.

In so many cases like yours …people decide to sell the home they are in when something interesting or bigger comes along that they want for themselves….so i would not “personalize” too much…

This doesn't seem to be the situation to rely on websites for a viable design. With the money you (might) save by doing much of the work yourself, I would strongly suggest hiring an architect to provide a design and layout which is fully functional and meets all of your needs.