Clicking Through The Big Picture

Tina Johnson, right, says the Chief Architect software helps ease her concerns about the major changes David Merrick has proposed for her home. (Michael Robinson-chavez -- The Washington Post)

For an example, look at Chief Architect, which has been around since 1992. One year later, the designers of Chief Architect created a second product, one exclusively for consumers. Today, these products -- Chief Architect and Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer -- count more than 1 million users, said Scott Harris, vice president of sales and marketing for Chief Architect.

"We've certainly made up a lot of ground since 1992," he said. "There is still a little bit of computer phobia among some architects or builders. They have the fear that a program will be too difficult for them to understand. But professionals now realize how important these products can be in not only helping them create their own blueprints and plans, but in helping them communicate information more easily to consumers."

Berny Hintz, an architect and owner of Davidsonville-based Berny Hintz, AIA, Architects Ltd., has been using home-planning software for about four years. The program is especially important to him because he specializes in building custom-designed factory-built modular houses.

By using his planning software, Hintz can show his clients exactly how their new homes will look with certain pieces of furniture in them, with hardwood floors or with certain brands of windows. The program helps clients understand, too, how large or small rooms will appear. It's one thing, after all, for clients to be told that a master bedroom will measure 6 feet by 15 feet. It's another thing to actually see, on a computer screen, how large that room will look once its owners move in a canopy bed and the loveseat they just purchased.

"Besides churches, really, residential work is the only time I am dealing with clients who are emotionally involved in what I am doing," Hintz said. "My clients are always bringing their own furnishings to a house, so often I am designing the space around these pieces of furniture. With this software I can make corrections and changes on the fly. I can walk through each room with them step by step, making decisions as we go."

John Rosenthal, owner of Rosenthal Homes in Potomac, recently met with clients who wanted to add living space to their Montgomery County house. The couple didn't know how to best add this space. To solve this problem, Rosenthal asked them what they would most like to see in an expanded kitchen, master bedroom suite and great room, and what type of furniture they planned on putting in these rooms.

Armed with this information, Rosenthal created three proposals. The clients studied these and are now moving ahead with the design phase of the project.

"It can be a challenge, especially in a renovation project, for owners to visualize what something is going to look like when it's done," Rosenthal said. "By using these programs it takes so much of the stress out of the equation for my clients."

Home-planning software has paid off for homeowner Javier Caballero.

Caballero, his wife, his 5-year-old son and his 1-year-old daughter live in a 1,000-square-foot rambler. To add room for their growing family, the Caballeros hired a builder to create a 900-square-foot addition to this home. Construction crews began work in late summer, but only after Caballero's builder used home-planning software to explain his plans.

The software helped Caballero and his wife make many of their decisions. In one case, the couple contemplated whether they should install extra-tall cabinets in their expanded kitchen -- ones stretching 42 inches -- or instead go with standard 36-inch cabinets and place small windows above them.

After viewing both options on their builder's home-planning software, the Caballeros decided on the 42-inch cabinets.

"The software really helped us understand what we were getting," Caballero said. "And everything moved so quickly because of it. We didn't have to wait a week for our builder to draw up new plans every time we decided to move something around. It really sped up the process."