I’m looking to tear down and extend my house and I’d like to draw what I want and experiment with layouts before I employ an architect to actually do the detail. Figured it’s easier if I go to them with sketches showing exactly what I want.

I can’t draw with my hands for toffee…. I can see what I want to draw in my head but can’t get it on paper.

Anyone have recommendations for fairly simple home design software packages that don’t cost the earth or require a PhD to operate?!

Google Sketchup? It's free.

My other half used it to do our electrical plans when we re-wired.

Still useful today for tracing wires!

I did a 3d Sketchup of the house and the plot of land so I could show before and after impact. Once done, you can move around for different views and print them off.

Try homebyme really easy to use, produces great results and is free.

I have used it to visualise changes to layout

linky