Architect home plans are that critical juncture of your idea for a dream house and to what extent a builder can produce that idea in several dimensions. What these blueprints tell the builder is precisely how and where to pull all the construction elements together. A builder, however, can and will do only what the blueprints indicate. To do more is license the builder doesn't have. To do less is losing the license the builder does have.

What's important to you in architect home plans is that the structural and period integrity of the house that you and the architect have brought to blueprint is maintained. You're dealing with an architect for exactly that reason. Your dream house will not be the cookie-cutter stock plan that the builder uses by default. The way to ensure that is to research and find an architect (or architects) with knowledge of the period you've settled on, and with luck, a library of blueprints in that style.

Architect Home Plans: Examples #1 and #2

If you've settled to a Spanish Eclectic bungalow, for example, the architect home plans will reproduce every detail for the builder to reference. From the joist-truss junctures in the cross-gabled roof to the low eave overhang, every detail will be spelled out, one-quarter inch for every foot, in the blueprint. Similarly, whether the tiles of the roof are straight barrel Mission, tapered Mission, Spanish, or American Spanish will be spelled out. The pilasters, carved stonework, and parapet columns will as well.

Perhaps the house is a Craftsman bungalow. If so, the blueprints will reflect in equal detail the dimensions of triangular knee braces and exposed roof beams. They will show the juncture of the porch supports and railing, the angle of the slope of the column itself. The front and side elevations will mark the double-front gable just the way you envisioned them.