Why I'm Building Stock Plans After 30 Years of Designing Homes
I drew my first house plan by hand in 1992. No CAD. No software. Just pencil, paper, and a drafting table at Design Basics in Omaha. I was one of their first CAD draftsmen when the technology came along, and I helped build standards that are still in use today.
Thirty years later — custom homes, commercial estimates, project management, groundbreaking to close-out — I've seen the same problems come up over and over.
Homeowners fall in love with square footage and end up house poor. They stretch to afford the size and then can't afford the cabinets, countertops, and finishes that actually make it feel like home. Builders work with plans drawn by designers who've never priced a wall or managed a schedule. And the gap between what a plan promises and what it costs to build keeps catching people off guard.
That's why I'm launching RED Residential Design.
Stock Plans, Built by Someone Who Knows What Things Cost
I'm not coming at this from a design-only background. I've spent years as a construction estimator and project manager. I've priced drywall, insulation, steel studs, acoustical ceilings — every line item that turns a drawing into a building. That experience changes how you design.
When I draw a plan, I'm thinking about framing efficiency — where mechanical chases run, whether the layout creates unnecessary waste in materials or labor. These aren't things most plan designers think about, because most plan designers haven't sat in a trailer doing takeoffs or walked a job site reviewing change orders.
I have. And that's what makes these plans different.
Custom Changes Welcome
A stock plan is a starting point — and a good one. But every family lives differently, every lot has its own constraints, and every budget has its limits. Custom changes are part of the deal.
Want to flip the layout? Add a bedroom? Adjust the garage for your lot? That's exactly what I've been doing for builders and homeowners for three decades. The stock plan gets you 80% there. The custom changes make it yours.
What's Already Built
Before the first plan was finished, I built three tools to support it.
A Design Matrix for preliminary programming — a structured way to work through what a client actually needs before design starts. A Specification Outline that comes with every plan — your road map for interviewing builders and comparing bids on equal footing. And a Construction Cost Estimator — not a ballpark, not a per-square-foot guess, but an actual estimate backed by current construction data.
The plans are in development now. The infrastructure to support them is already done.
If you're a builder or homeowner who's tired of the disconnect between design and cost — stick around. This is being built for you.