Many thanks to all your generous response. muddy and hgoed, I will certainly consider Chief Architect. A quick question, are you using X1 or X2? Also can you elaborate a bit on the code check feature (Residential Code Checklist)? If I remember correctly, the Home design Pro also claims to have that feature. I have been wondering how that works. The list of codes from the city is awfully long. This can be a critical feature if it indeed will go over all those codes. oruboris, BH&G is still on my list. One of the concerns that I have is the max print size limit (Arch-C). The city required Arch D 24 Ã 36. I wonder if there is any work around. For example, export those plans to dxf and then modify the paper size using other program like doubleCAD, CadStd, or other... Or export them to PDF and change to paper size. I am just thinking out loud. marthaelena, I have not thought of using sketchup. Last time I saw that it was sketchup 4. It is now sketchup 7. Wow, I am really outdated. I don't have any experience with sketchup. What is your take on using it to draw a buildable plan? arewethereyet, I love your user name. It took me a while to catch it. Ah, we are still planning out our trip. We are not even qualify to ask that question (are we there yet) ;) Thank you for sharing your Blueprint-Maker-Guy story, that was a good found. I just visited RobÂs site. The price is surly right. We are still thinking of drawing our plan. But, we certainly need to find someplace to get them printed later. Also, if we ever change our mind and have further question about Rob, can we PM you?

So, my options. Lots of them, quite likely all involving tree roots. Option 1 - Rain gardens for sidewalk drainage. Where our front walk flows down to the sidewalk, and also just because of grade, water stands. It does this from the center of the house over to the driveway, and if there is a real storm, it overflows into the driveway, then the street. This also happens on the other side of the driveway, so I'd probably try to do one long, narrow garden in front of the sidewalk, up to the flower boxes, and a bigger one on the north side of the driveway between the sidewalk and the street. Option 2 - Backyard gutter garden. Again, there is a tree root issue, and anything here would likely have to be hand dug (by which I mean with a hand-held spade, not a shovel). Our backyard is on Chalmer's Drain (I always thought it was Mallets Creek, but it appears not??) - and there isn't much in the way of a run-off issue back there. The waterway is lined with caged rocks, and I suspect my back garden is already acting as a filter between the house/garage and the creek. Just feels like, since I've already got a long gutter clearing the water away from the house, this wouldn't be the most helpful rain garden. Option 3 - Driveway Dig Out Right now I have a downspout that comes out from the corner of the house about 3' into a flower bed. The flower bed helps retain some water, but it isn't dug in more than a few inches. Problem here is two-fold. The ground for the first 4 feet near the house is full of gravel. And then, tree roots. In an ideal world, I'd dig out a drainage path from the house-bed, under the walkway, into the other bed, and build the rain garden inside that bed. Then I'd put in the black flexi-pipe and cover the over up to the rain garden. My helper isn't going to want to help dig out that much... so I'm avoiding this, although I'd like to see that water come out further from the house, and need to do something about that regardless.

I also considered having three smaller pool areas that overflow from one to the other to the next. Kind of like larger scale Green Infrastructure. And, while I still like this idea, It feels like a lot of work and maintenance. And I want something that will be able to exist pretty much on its own with minimal care from me once installed.

Learning about how awesome rain gardens are for our environment. I'm very new to this idea and am looking forward to the self-paced online classes to learn more. Here is the area that I plan to install a rain garden. It gets a lot of run off from the house AND its where our well pumps out. Grass doesn't grow well and is usually muddy. I was planning to put plants to help with erosion - then I learned about rain gardens! 🤔Does this look like a good spot to start? Thanks ☺️