Sites for building plans and inspiration

[Twinmum]

I hope this is OK to put these links here, if not please remove the thread.

I thought it would be good to have a few links all in one thread for builders to use for ideas and inspiration.

This is a site found by Ariagirl and explains home styles
http://architecture.about.com/od/housestyles/tp/housestylesindex.htm

These are a few sites with house plans that I use. They all have a search feature that allows you to choose things like how many bedrooms or bathrooms. Of course not all house plans can be simmed but they are often good just for basic ideas.
http://www.houseplans.com/
http://www.globalhouseplans.com/index.asp
http://www.dreamhomesource.com/

Norma

[AriaGirl77]

Thanks for posting this, Norma!  It's a great idea.

I really love the Dream Home Source site that you listed, it's actually where we found the plans for our real non-Sims house. 

[samoht04]

Great Idea!

I got some:

It may be simple but it still can help - Google Images of Houses

This is a Building Magazines Website, they may have more apartements and offices style stuff but that doesn't mean you can't use the designs - Building.co.uk

I think Google Images is the best one, you can find 'Modern Homes' and 'Classic Homes', 'Family Homes' and even 'Wacky Homes'

[Twinmum]

Here is a guide for the symbols used in house plans, just so you can tell what that square is.
This link was provided by Archer0 in another thread, but I thought I'd repost it with all these links.

http://www.the-house-plans-guide.com/images/blueprint-symbols.gif

[MomOfMany]

This is a great idea. I love to look at house plans. I have even drew quite a few of my own. I used to have a computer program that I used alot and I loved it but it got lost so eventually I will get a new one as drawing home plans is a passion of mine. The irony of it is I can't build in the Sims at all. I am horrible at it and when I only a lot to build I draw a blank and just end up with a big box. LOL But one places I liked was www.eplans.com unfortunately I can't remember any of the others but if I do I will be back to post more. Ohh I also like to look at local builders in the area. They usually have more Simable houses.

[LlamaMama]

I recently found this list of sites.

[kiko94]

I'll add some that have been provided by Lynley

http://www.dreamhomesource.com/browse/all-architectural-styles.hwx

http://www.homeplans.com/architectural-styles

http://houseplansandmore.com/

[Castaras]

Bit of necromancy here on this thread, but I recently found http://www.xplans.co.uk/ . While as a site it looks awful, the plans it has are probably the easiest to understand I've found yet, and also work really well for making smaller sized houses (my preferred building size is anything 30x30 and lower). It has views from the front, sides and back as well as the floorplans.

[JudesSims]

Bit of necromancy here on this thread, but I recently found http://www.xplans.co.uk/ . While as a site it looks awful, the plans it has are probably the easiest to understand I've found yet, and also work really well for making smaller sized houses (my preferred building size is anything 30x30 and lower). It has views from the front, sides and back as well as the floorplans.

Thank you so much! These are great plans and I've already printed out a few

[cathyknits]

The floorplans from Build Now New Orleans are very nice smaller homes - I think the biggest one had a footprint of about 15x15. I'm using one of their larger floorplans in a game I'm playing right now, and it's working very nicely for my sims. You're also not limited to their (fairly bland) rooflines.

I've also built a lot of houses out of "Craftsman Homes" and "More Craftsman Homes", by Gustav Stickley - look for them on Google Books. I'd build even more of them if I had the knack of building complicated staircases.

[DeSsYt0]

Very nice plans. Actually I liked most the dream home site. I just adore this house: http://www.dreamhomesource.com/house-plans/dhs/dhsw67657.html?from=search.
The best is that you can choose how many bedrooms, bathrooms or garages you want in your house, what type of the house you want.. that quick search makes the site
amazing for me. I always can search my dream home plan there. Thank you!

[Susinok]

One site I really like it Houzz.com.

http://www.houzz.com/

If you sign up for the mailing list you get an email magazine once a week, and it has feature articles on architecture and interior design.

I'm a good builder, but my furnishing skills lack imagination. This gives me good ideas.

[Shewolf13]

Not sure if this is the right place or even if I'm allowed to mention it, though I haven't seen anything in the rules that says I can't.  But for those with a tablet or smartphone, there are free apps you can get.  One of them is actually a place with house plans to peruse, the other is one that you can create your own house plans.  If anyone is interested, I can either PM you or if it is permitted I can give the names in the topic.

[Pam]

Not sure if this is the right place or even if I'm allowed to mention it, though I haven't seen anything in the rules that says I can't.  But for those with a tablet or smartphone, there are free apps you can get.  One of them is actually a place with house plans to peruse, the other is one that you can create your own house plans.  If anyone is interested, I can either PM you or if it is permitted I can give the names in the topic.

Sure, go ahead and share them. 

[Shewolf13]

Now, I have an Android phone/tablet, but I imagine that Apple also has something similar.  The one is called 'Floor Plan Creator' and of course, that's the one that you can plan your own houses out.  The other one is simply called 'House Plans' which has a good listing of plans.  I believe you can even save them as well by signing up with an email.