Interior Designers are trained to focus on the interior living environment above all else.  In fact, in design school we often will design the furniture layout first, and then draw walls around them to essentially build a house "from the inside out".  If you want your next home to function with this level of attention to detail, an interior designer is the best professional to hire.

​

Short answer, No (most of the time).  I am not an architect or engineer.  Your builder will have a beam & truss engineer review the plan, and for most city building licenses that is enough to be granted a permit.  Please check with your local experts if you are unsure about this.

First of all, those plans are not custom.  If you want a home that is 100% designed for you and your family, you need to work one-on-one with a trained designer.  Secondly, many of those online plans are churned out a dime a dozen and are vague on measurements (so your builder would have to re-draw them before they could begin construction anyway).  Thirdly, they are often missing essential things such as mechanical rooms, and proper allowances for modern furniture and appliances.  For example, most of the laundry rooms are drawn up with the old standard 30" square washer & dryers, when most modern machines are significantly larger and won't fit in a standard depth closet.

Not really.  I charge an hourly rate for my drafting and designs services... and I'm pretty fast.  A simple plan with one round of revisions can be as little as 4 hours.

Think about this.  Having a plan in place before you approach builders to get a construction estimate actually saves you money and ensures that if you're shopping around you're getting a true "apples to apples" bid.  Not only do they know exactly the layout and square footage you want, but you can also see how different material selections will affect the price instead of generic "builder grade" price vs. "upgrade" price.

Having a plan decided on up front will always save you money down the line.    

Just because you don't want a McMansion, doesn't mean you shouldn't have a custom home.  In fact, when you're trying to get maximum functionality out of a small space, that's the best reason to have it custom designed for your needs.  I can help you carve out storage where others might just widen a hallway, or square off a corner "just because".  I love working with modestly sized homes - main floors ranging between 1,000 and 2,500 square feet.

#1 - I am a space planning ninja.  #2 - I design my homes "from the inside out".  I always keep furniture layouts and traffic patterns foremost in my mind as I'm laying out spaces.  #3 - As an Interior Designer I am also constantly paying attention to the small details like sightlines through a space, symmetry with windows and doors, and thinking ahead to the overall material and color scheme.  This means if you want to hire me to put together a fixtures/finishes/furniture concept I've probably already got a rough draft in my head!  #4 - Being in a Northern climate (Montana) I am aware of the unique challenges having 4 dramatic seasons can cause.  Things like mudrooms, or not having entryways open directly into living rooms because of blowing snow, and even including basements (which those in the South, or in areas of high-water tables can't have).