You're standing in the middle of the living room, trying to figure out just what it is that dissatisfies you about the space. It's too small, too close? Why not take out a wall -- the one to the dining room, for instance?
Good idea.
Zap.
Hey, great space. Only now you can see right into the kitchen, the sink stacked with dirty dishes.
How about switching the kitchen and breakfast nook?
Great.
Zap.
Much better. Only that window is too tiny. How about a nice Palladian style?
Zap.
Nope, too formal. How about French doors?
Zap.
Perfect.
Home improvement in a snap? Actual home improvement isn't this easy, of course; it's fraught with design quandaries and materials dilemmas and windows that don't fit and workers who don't show up and prices that astonish.
Few areas in life are as stressful as remodeling. Homeowners often feel they're groping in the dark, not knowing what a project will look like, how much it will cost or how to communicate their wishes clearly to the builder who will undertake the project.
But thanks to dozens of savvy software producers, you can virtually redo any room in your house, add new rooms, design a deck or even design a new house -- all with no more strain than clicking a mouse button and for no more expense than the cost of the software.
For instance, there's "3D Home Architect" from Broderbund Software Inc. of Novato, Calif.
"It allows you to create professional-looking floor plans," said Shannon Jameson, a public-relations coordinator for Broderbund. "It's easy -- you can create a room just by dragging your mouse."
"3D Home Architect" has hundreds of object symbols in its library; by clicking on them and dragging them to the appropriate places, you can rearrange a room, change the appliances, move the windows, put in new doors.
"You can do a floor plan and immediately do a plan overview and look at it from all directions," Ms. Jameson said. "It's also very intuitive -- it won't let you put a bathroom in the kitchen."
The program also offers a "rainbow" tool that allows you to experiment with different color schemes. And this program, like most of the others, automatically labels dimensions and calculates the area of the spaces you design.
"3D Home Architect" is "targeted at the regular home user," Ms. Jameson said. "We're assuming people would use it to meet with contractors and really speed the [remodeling] process along."
By presenting a contractor with a complete, scaled plan and a materials list, you can let him know exactly what you want.
"Think how far ahead you'd be, and how much money you'd save," Ms. Jameson said.
But there are other uses for the program, she noted. "I'm moving, and my husband cranked up the program and played with it for a few hours," figuring out how the furniture would best fit in the new spaces.
"By morning, he had the whole plan figured out, where everything went. And with a big fish tank, you don't want to move it twice."
Jake Holmes, a tool designer who lives in Denton, used a computer program to design a 2-story addition for his home.
'Not that difficult'
"It's really not that difficult to do," Mr. Holmes said. "You need to have a concept to start out with." His 16-by 26-foot addition will house a kitchen, a family room, a bathroom and a master bedroom with a large walk-in closet. The program Mr. Holmes used is a computer-aided design (CAD) program that requires some proficiency on the computer. But, he said, "once you've mastered something like that, you'll never go back to pencil and paper."
Among the features he likes is the fact that "you get to see where you're going to have a conflict -- like if you've got a 4-by-8 sheet of plywood and there's no stud to nail it to. With a paper plan, you have to rely on the draftsman."
Mr. Holmes hasn't broken ground yet for the project, though he has been working with a builder on the initial stages. "We're just waiting for the weather," he said.
Most of the design programs work in basically the same way: You have a drawing space and a library of symbols, or icons, that let you install objects, draw lines, rotate views and change the view from 2D to 3D.
Some are fairly simple to use, and some require a fair amount of sophistication in mouse control.
One of the more user-friendly programs is "Design and Build Your Deck," from Books That Work of Palo Alto, Calif. To start designing, you click on Deck in the tool bar, and the program asks you to select a shape. Then you select other categories from the tool bar -- steps, railings -- and locate them by clicking on the spot. You can also change the view from top to side to 3D, and remove the "decking" to see the structural base. "Your Deck" also provides a materials list.
"We have a variety of different home-improvement titles," said Tina Stillions, public relations manager for Books That Work. Besides "Design and Build Your Deck," there are "3D Landscape," "The Home Buyer's Guide" (offers amortization tables and helps prepare some of the paperwork involved in buying a house), "Get Wired" (which explains how to do wiring) and the "Home Survival Tool Kit" (which offers fix-it and home maintenance tips).
There's a CD-ROM version of the survival guide called "The Home Repair Encyclopedia" that offers videos for some tasks.
"I've learned a lot from the 'Home Survival' guide," Ms. Stillions said. "We just bought a house, and it's really useful."
The simpler programs, however, may not offer as many design choices as some of the more elaborate ones.
"The Home Series" from Autodesk's Retail Products Division in Bothnell, Wash., offers such details as pocket doors, side lights for doors, track lighting, cooktops as well as ranges, sinks, a piano, a pool table and a rock hearth for a fireplace.
"Home" is one of a series of "modules" Autodesk offers; others deal with kitchens and bathrooms, decks and landscaping.
"You draw things in a 2D mode and come up with a plan," said Kim Doubek, a product support technician with Autodesk. "Then you can take it to the 3D part of the program. You can stand in the middle of the 'room' and it will tell you what you're looking at."
There are patterns for different surfaces and 64 colors to choose from. Textures and surfaces include concrete, wood, tile and roofing, Mr. Doubek said.
"It exports into AutoCAD," Mr. Doubek said, explaining that you can do a drawing in "Home" and transfer the file into the type of computer-aided design program used by professional architects and builders.
'What-if' scenarios
Rick Eads of Colorado Springs, Colo., used "3D Home Architect" for his home project, finishing a basement. "I'd been planning on using some other packages, but I never had enough time to sit down and learn them. '3D Architect' is so simple. In one evening my father and I revised the layout four times, doing different 'what-if' scenarios."
Mr. Eads is a product manager for Hewlett-Packard, so he understands the appeal of a program that's simple to use.
"There are some limitations," he said. "You cannot create a set of blueprints you can give to a contractor. But for remodeling projects," he said, the simpler program is ideal.
With his design complete, Mr. Eads is looking for a contractor.
It's not exactly a limitation, but most of the programs require a little input from the user. While most automatically calculate dimensions, they won't go around and measure your rooms if you're working with existing spaces. You will still have to do some legwork with a tape measure before you sit down at the computer.
You'll also need to be familiar with the basic components of home improvement -- knowing the difference between a cooktop and a drop-in range, for instance.
It may be easier for some people to start with a design plan. Some of the programs offer home designs or room addition designs. The CD-ROM version of "3D Home Architect" offers 150 house plans from HomeStyles Publishing and Marketing, as well as some remodeling plans. If you find a plan you like, you can order blueprints.
The CD-ROM version of Planix Home, from Foresight Resources Corp. of Kansas City, Mo., has 500 floor plans that you can edit and customize.
There are a number of landscaping programs, too. Like most such programs, "LandDesign for Windows" from Spinnaker Software Corp. of Newport beach, Calif., allows users to design gardens and landscapes. It also includes a sprinkler system design function that can be "turned on" so you can check coverage.
"Garden Architect for Windows" from Swift Platinum of Rancho Dominguez, Calif., offers a time-lapse feature that lets you see how plants will look as they get older and bigger. You can also view any aspect of your design from east, west, north or south.
Whether they're simple or complex, DOS or Windows, the programs can do a lot to demystify the building and remodeling process by allowing users to select exactly the features they want, and by allowing them to "see" what the finished design will look like. It also lets them show architects and builders just what they expect in a project.
"People are fascinated with being able to have that kind of control," Ms. Walton said.