Designing your home should feel exciting, not overwhelming. At American Design Concepts, we walk you through every step to turn your ideas into a build-able plan that works for your family, your lot, and your budget.
Step 1: Bring Us Your Ideas
Bring us everything you have! In your first meeting with us, we will take your ideas and break them down into three categories:
In our first meeting, we:
- Review all of your ideas and identify your plan drivers
- Talk about the general building process. For first time home builders you will have a lot of questions and concerns. We will do our best to answer every question and explain how to avoid common (sometimes costly) mistakes.
- Review your land and city restrictions (setbacks, septic placement, driveway orientation, and more) if you already have a plot purchased or pending
- Discuss your budget. While many cost-influencing factors fall outside our scope, we’ll walk you through what impacts the final cost of your home and design a plan that aligns with your goals.
Whether we draw a custom plan from scratch, or start with a plan from our catalog and adjust it to your needs, you’ll see your home start to take shape in real time.
In this meeting we want to focus not only on what you need now, but also what you want for your future. Whether you plan to sell down the road or want this to be your forever home; it all become part of the conversation and drives your design from day one.
Step 2: From Concept to a Full Plan Set
Our finished plans have everything you need for bidding and permitting. To keep costs down and make the process smoother for builders, we intentionally create builder plan sets. This means your builder’s subcontractors, such as electrical, plumbing, and cabinetry, to name a few, will design parts of the plan as part of their bid. Typically, there is no additional cost to you for this. This approach allows each specialist to design what they know best and gives your builder the flexibility to build in the way that works best for them while keeping the project cost-effective.
What’s included:
- All elevations (front, rear, left and right side), floor plans of all levels, foundation finish, foundation plan, and details page.
- Standard braced wall plans for permitting.
- Generic site plans to help visualize placement
- Custom home plans include an exterior 3D rendering video. Examples of these videos are available on our YouTube channel
Step 3: Final Review and Refinement
Once your home goes out for bids you are not done with us yet! Included with our custom home plans, we allow for 3 hours of additional changes for after bids to help dial your house in on budget or make any final changes. During the drafting process we will discuss ways to add/subtract cost to your project. We will revisit those ideas if your house is over or under budget.
Changes like reducing square footage, adjusting the roof design, or planning for some lower-level spaces to be finished later, are a few examples we can adjust the plan to come in on budget. We will also modify your plan as needed to fit the requirements of your builder and/or your subdivision.
When your home design is finalized to fit your budget, municipality requirements, and your builder’s needs, you will be ready to build your dream home!
Payment Process
At American Design Concepts, we offer straightforward, transparent pricing based on the finished square footage of your home.
Finished Square footage is defined as all heated spaces plus any auxiliary rooms such as screened porches, 3 and 4 seasons rooms and bonus rooms.
- $1.50 per square foot for finished areas upstairs
- $0.75 per square foot for finished basement space
- Standalone garages, additions, remodels and other specialty plans are billed at $180 an hour. Free estimates are given but cannot be guaranteed.
We’ll send you an invoice when the bidding plan set is complete, giving you 30 days to remit payment. Any clean up changes beyond the included 3 hours are billed at our standard hourly rate. Some builders cover our fee as part of their home building process. If you decide to end the process before a finished plan is completed, we will bill you at our standard hourly rate for the time that we have into your project.
You’ll always understand your costs up front, with transparent rates and clear explanations at every step.
Your Home, Your Journey
Building your custom home should feel like a journey you understand and enjoy, from first sketch to final plans. With clear guidance, transparent pricing, and open communication, American Design Concepts makes sure you feel confident every step of the way. Your dream home starts with your inspiration, and ends with builder-ready plans created for how you want to live–never complicated, always collaborative.
