Using home renovation
software helps with planning and the estimation
of cost
If you have decided to
take the plunge and start making some
well-needed home improvements, you will find
that you have a few ideas but are not sure what
to do with these ideas. The problem is that
while these ideas may seem great in your head,
in reality they may not be feasible. You need
to figure out estimated costs as well as whom
you are going to hire - if anyone - to complete
the work. If it all seems a bit much to deal
with, you will find that there is home
renovation software available which can help
with the early planning stages.
There are many free
options for home renovation software, but many
of these only provide basic help. By spending a
few dollars on a professional version, you will
have a lot more choice and it will become an
invaluable help during the initial planning
stage. Of course, ot depends on how serious you
are about the project. If it’s just a bit of
fun then spending money on one of these
programs will basically be money down the
drain.
However, if your plan
includes hiring a team of professionals, it
will be very worthwhile investing in, unless of
course one of those professionals will be
organizing it all for you as he will already
have his own software.
What you should look for
when buying home renovation software
Many people feel that
completing home improvements is worthwhile and
very rewarding; it still needs to be very well
planned and thought out. Using good quality
home renovation software will help to guide you
through every step of this process. You can
actually see what the end results should look
like on your computer. You can cost everything
and the software will even give you a list of
which materials you need before you start –
perfect for a novice!
Once you have worked out
all of the final figures, you can always go
back through the software cutting back where
appropriate to lower the cost. It will give you
a good idea as to whether or not your ideas are
affordable and whether you need the added cost
of hiring a professional to finish the work.
You will know before you even step foot inside
a DIY store whether your project is doable,
affordable and generally a good idea.
Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer Suite 8.0
Amazon Price: $88.99 Used Price: $74.99 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 Review (rating: 1): I'm using verion 7.0, but there's no upgrade to 8.0 for 7.0 users, so ...
I've tried to model my own house half a dozen times with this thing, and it's just beyond frustrating. All the defaults make no sense (why would I want to measure walls from the center of the wall, rather than the surface? Why would I care about measuring to roof lines??), it constantly moves walls as you add new ones, forcing me to re-measure and re-adjust where walls are supposed to be. And constant bugs, where it won't let me do what I want, loses data (I saved a file I spent two hours on, and when I went back to it, it was blank), I had it suddently think all walls were only 20 inches high, and was NEVER able to fix it, no matter what settings I altered....
It's an exercise in pure frustration. It's horribly difficult to use for this purpose. I cannot recommend it for anyone, and wish to god I could get my money back. Do NOT buy this if you're hoping to model your existing home in hopes of having it help you redecorate or remodel.
Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer 8.0
Amazon Price: $59.99 Used Price: $47.40 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 Review (rating: 4): This is a user friendly product that allows you to create some very realistic home designs. I would have given it 5 stars, but I'm still having trouble loading the software update.
Punch! Professional Home Design
Used Price: $8.99 Average Customer Rating: 2.0 Review (rating: 4): Good product...PUNCH
Works as advertised.....
Amazon has the best softwareat the lowest prices
Punch! Master Landscape & Home Design
Used Price: $1.33 Average Customer Rating: 2.0 Review (rating: 1): Master Landscape is not easy by any means to master. This product is very hard to use, it takes weeks to learn. My recommendations would be don't waste your money and buy something else. This product is really a 5.95 value.
Punch! Home Design Architectural Series 18
Used Price: $47.49 Average Customer Rating: 2.5 Review (rating: 2): I had to buy this product for college and we used it to of course design homes. It is the stupidest thing in the world. First off, it takes up like 350GB of hard drive space. You HAVE TO HAVE 4GB of ram to load a picture. It is so slow and eats so much speed and space on your computer (because of all the little furniture and plants and features, etc) that you will want to punch your monitor anytime you get a little ways into creating something. The more detail you add, the slower this thing gets to do anything, even save or open.
If you are designing dog houses, this is your product. If you want to try and hang windows and doors on multiple levels of a designed house, forget it. They are all mathematically calculated in a way that you will always be adding electrical outlets and doors on the first floor or basement when you meant to put them upstairs. It doesn't know where you are, and you won't realize until you see that the whole house's windows and doors and outlets and fans and furniture and staircases are all in the basement. Don't buy it.
