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Dream Home Plans: What People Ask For, What They Actually Use, and How to Get the Plan That Fits the Life You Have
Plans and design Dream home plans From a builder
Dream Home Plans: What People Ask For, What They Actually Use, and How to Get the Plan That Fits the Life You Have
After forty-odd years I can tell you what is in the binder before it opens: a kitchen with two islands, a bathroom the size of a first apartment, a home theatre, a wine cellar, and a budget that would have built the house in 1997. None of that is a criticism. It is just where everybody starts, and the job is getting from there to a plan you will actually live in.
Short version: The dream home plan and the lived-in home plan are different drawings. The rooms that get drawn and never used: the formal living room, the dedicated theatre, the 500-bottle cellar, the office that becomes a box room, the spa bathroom used for a six-minute shower. The things that get forgotten: a mudroom, a pantry, a main-floor bedroom, a place for the dog, enough garage, the laundry near the bedrooms. Plans for a custom house in Ontario cost roughly $4,000 to $12,000 from a BCIN designer and 5 to 10 percent of construction from an architect; stock plans a few hundred to a couple of thousand and then the same modifications. Brief the designer with how you live, not what you saw; price the plan before you love it; and add 20 percent to whatever number is in your head, then 10 more.
What gets asked for, and what gets used
| Asked for | What happens | What to draw instead |
|---|---|---|
| Two-island kitchen with a walk-in fridge | Takeout on the near island; the far one holds mail | One island you can walk around, a real pantry, counter space beside every appliance |
| Spa bathroom: 16 jets, tub by the fireplace, sauna | A six-minute shower while yelling at the kids about the bus | A good curbless shower, a tub if you bathe, heated floor, two sinks, a door that shuts |
| Home theatre with stadium seating for twenty | Cats, seasonal decorations, a very expensive nap room | A family room with a good screen and blackout blinds, and a door |
| 500-bottle wine cellar | Three housewarming bottles and the Christmas bins | A cool closet with racks, or nothing |
| Dedicated home office with built-ins and a view | Amazon boxes and an exercise bike wearing a coat | A flexible room with a closet, which is also a bedroom at resale |
| Formal living room and formal dining room | Visited at Christmas; the piano nobody plays | One big room where the family is, and a table that seats twelve at a pinch |
| Great room with a 20-foot ceiling and a glass wall | Heating bill, echo, a ladder to change a bulb | Nine or ten-foot ceilings, a vault where it earns it, glass where the view is |
| A spiral stair for the dog | The dog does not do spiral stairs either | A straight stair, 40 inches wide, with room for a lift someday |
None of this is about taste. It is about the difference between a house that photographs and a house that gets lived in, and the second one is what you are paying for. How much house you really need is the honest version of the room list.
The things the binder forgets
- A mudroom with a bench, hooks, a closet and a sink, between the garage and the kitchen. In Ontario it is not optional.
- A pantry. A real one, with a door.
- A bedroom and full bath on the main floor, even if it is an office for the first ten years. Accessible design explains why.
- The laundry near the bedrooms, not in the basement corner.
- A garage that fits the truck with the doors open and the bikes behind it.
- Storage for the things a house holds: the vacuum, the recycling, the hockey bags, the Christmas boxes.
- Where the sun comes from. Choosing house plans puts orientation first for a reason.
- A porch you will sit on, which is smaller than the one you drew and faces the right way.
What plans cost in Ontario
| Route | Typical cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Stock plan from a catalogue | $500 to $2,500 for the set | A starting point; nearly always modified for the lot, the Code and the family, by a designer, at designer rates |
| BCIN designer, custom | $4,000 to $12,000 for permit drawings | A plan drawn for you and your lot, stamped for the permit; the usual route for a custom house |
| Architect | 5 to 10 percent of construction cost, or $15,000 and up for drawings alone | Design, drawings, and if you want it, contract administration through construction |
| Builder’s own plans (ours, for example) | Often free with the build | A plan the builder has built before and can price precisely |
Architect vs BCIN designer explains who can stamp what; building permit drawings lists what the set has to contain; our most popular plan is free to download.
How to brief a designer
- Start with a week of your life, not a board of pictures. Where you eat, where the coats land, who gets up first, where homework happens, where the dog sleeps.
- List the rooms you use in your current house and the ones you walk through. Draw more of the first kind.
- Bring the lot: survey, grading, where the sun and the view and the neighbours are.
- Bring the budget, the real one, and the target cost per square foot you are prepared to pay. Designing to a target budget is how the plan and the money stay in the same room.
- Then bring the pictures, labelled with the one thing in each you actually like. Usually it is the light, not the chandelier.
The budget rule
Whatever number is in your head, add 20 percent, then 10 percent for a contingency, then accept you will still find something you did not know existed when you started. In forty years nobody has come in under budget without cutting the plan first. Every “while we are at it” after framing costs money and time; moving an outlet six inches is cheap on the plan and expensive in the wall. The contingency and what happens when the money runs out are the pages people read second; read them first.
Who ends up happy
Not the biggest budgets. The clients who brought notes on how they actually live, who made decisions in days instead of months, who cut the finished basement calmly when the excavator found rock, and who trusted the people they hired after checking them out properly. Their houses came in close to budget and they have not needed to change much since. You are not building a showcase; you are building the setting for the next thirty years of ordinary Tuesdays. Design for those and the sunset off the smaller porch takes care of itself. And please, no window opposite the shower.
Related guides on this site
Sources and further reading
Questions people ask
How much do house plans cost in Ontario?
A stock plan $500 to $2,500 plus modifications; custom permit drawings from a BCIN designer $4,000 to $12,000; an architect 5 to 10 percent of construction cost or $15,000 and up for drawings alone. Builders often supply their own plans with the build.
What rooms do people regret building?
Formal living and dining rooms, dedicated home theatres, wine cellars, oversized spa bathrooms, two-storey great rooms and offices that become storage. The rooms people wish they had: a mudroom, a pantry, a main-floor bedroom and bath, laundry near the bedrooms, and a bigger garage.
How do I keep my dream home on budget?
Price the plan before you commit to it, design to a target cost per square foot, add 20 percent to the number in your head plus a 10 percent contingency, make selections before construction, and stop changing things after framing.
Should I use a stock plan or a custom design?
A stock plan is a cheap starting point and is nearly always modified for the lot and the Code at designer rates. For a lot with slope, views or a specific way of living, a custom plan from a BCIN designer usually costs little more and fits better.
Have a plan already?
Send it to ICFhome.ca and we will tell you what it costs to build and where the drawing is spending money you may not want to spend.
Reviewed and updated October 2026. Costs are Ontario ranges, not quotes; code references are to the Ontario Building Code in force at that date.
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It’s helpful that you mentioned that stock house plans can help me have more flexibility when it comes to house blueprint design services. I’m interested in looking for a good designer soon because I’d like to have my new home built very soon. It’s starting to feel a bit cramped in the apartment that I’m sharing with a friend so I would like to move out within the next year or so.
It’s good to know that I can save money by having an architect only do certain services. I’d love to have them help me out with every step. Maybe I can rework my budget to get more help.
BCIN qualified designer is missing from this list and is usually in between the draftsperson and architect for fees. Most of my projects come in between 5-10k from project start to finished permit at a rate of $50/hour, depending on how much consultation work is required with the city/agencies, etc.