About 2 years ago, my then 11 year old son started to get interested in architecture. We would drive through neighborhoods and he would critique peoples houses! I am sure people who spent hundreds of thousands for their happy home would be pleased as punch to hear if their home made the grade...

He desperately wanted to buy a program that would let him design homes. We went to Walmart and did some shopping. We ended up coming home with the Sierra Home Architect.

He spent many hours sitting at the computer working away on making some homes. Even my daughter (then 9) got into the act and I was forever finding files that they saved named things like Michaelshouse1, Annieshouse1, then 2, 3 etc. etc.

Being the ever understanding wonderful mother that I am, I thought I should get in on the action and had them show me some of their work. They were actually coming up with some pretty good designs and if not having halls between all the rooms wasn't a problem they would possibly be rich today!

Fast forward 2 years and you reach today (boy, time flies doesn't it?). My husband and I have been contemplating remodeling our kitchen and I have been talking to a designer to help us. She came up with what I consider to be a workable design, but my husband disagreed (shocking that we didn't agree right off the bat!)

We have a small kitchen and a large family -- not a perfect mix! So today I decided to try and put the kitchen on paper for him to actually see what it would look like. The easy part for me was that the designer had already measured everything out and had the design all set to go.

I opened up the Sierra Home Architect program and got to work. I was able to put the cabinets, appliances, furniture, doors and windows all where I wanted. I was able to add the colors I wanted (you have choices between many different colors of metal, vinyl, marble, wood, tile, etc. etc.) for the cabinets, walls, floors, counters, doors and appliances. I was able to choose the cabinets I wanted and it even gives you the chance to put out nick nacks or other items (like pictures on the walls) and it was tempting to add the piles of paper that will eventually land on the counters just to make it look especially realistic...

We have a bay window and sure enough there were numerous ones to choose from to match what I needed. Problems I ran into were small, like they didn't list microhood in the appliances and so I put a regular microwave there so we could at least get the idea, and they don't list Corian for the counters, but the granite choices worked fine.

The entire process took me about 90 minutes to complete (as I said, all the measuring was already done for me). I was able to print out different ways to look at the room to really give us an idea of what it would look like. I did have some trouble getting the view the way I wanted it and so that took me longer than I would have liked.

Overall I was pretty impressed with the program and what I could accomplish with it! You can do any room in the house or a whole house. The finished product is in 3D and you can get a view from above if you want one (in case you ever look at your kitchen while hanging from the ceiling).

So if you are the type that enjoys changing your current home, or you would love to design a whole new one this is a great place to start! Sierra also offers a landscaping program and I am betting that this one has been upgraded since we went shopping... Happy designing!




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