Catalano visited a few Web sites and settled on DreamHouseSource.com. He liked the site's easy navigation and ordered the $10 CD-ROM, which contained more than 10,000 plans. They found a plan they liked and ordered it. But to make the house fit their needs required more changes than the stock plan service could handle. He took the plans to a local builder, who had a draftsman take a shot at it.

"He couldn't cope with as much as we wanted done, either," Catalano says. "He came pretty close, but it cost us $1,500 and when he was finished, we didn't have a set of plans we could take to a builder."

From there, they wound up going back to an architect, who had a junior associate tweak the plan, which cost another $1,200. The process took months before he had a set of plans for their dream house.

"If you think you can find a plan that suits you, this is a good way to go," he says, "but if you're going to make a lot of changes, I wouldn't recommend it. If I'd taken the house we found, it would have been fantastic. It would have been a few hundred dollars. It was just missing a couple of things."

Expect to pay for revisions
Design Basics' Reimer says her company is accustomed to requests for major changes. Most people get attached to a basic floor plan and the exterior appearance (which builders call the elevation), she says. From there, pretty much everything is fair game for revisions.

"I'm talking about a total redraw of the kitchen, the bath, stretching the house, things that change the roof line," she says. "We red-line everything and it looks like a big bloody mess."

That level of change doesn't come cheap, she says. Expect fees ranging from $500 to $1,500 from a plan provider with an in-house design department, but at that point, you truly have a custom home. A reputable firm should be able to turn those changes around within a couple of weeks, she says. When you order changes, you'll be asked to sign a contract detailing the changes, with the stated price.

"That protects both people," she says. "Then, if the plan company has forgotten something, you have evidence."

Before you order changes, make a couple of calls to local architects or builders to see how much plan revisions cost in your area. If you order changes from the plan provider, you can anticipate paying $40 to $65 per hour depending on the plan and the level of revision required, says Curtis Cadenhead, a designer and plans administrator for St. Louis-based Design America. If you're in a major metropolitan area, the prices for altering plans might be in the same range. Architects in smaller markets often have lower hourly rates, which could save you hundreds of dollars.

Picking your plan provider
When choosing a stock plan provider, start with a company that offers an array of plans, Reimer says. Check the dates on the plans to see when they were drawn. The most-reputable providers are always adding new plans that reflect the latest trends in home-building.

They'll also have on-site customer service and technical support to walk you through the construction process. That's important because as many as half the people who buy stock plans are do-it-yourselfers who intend to build the house themselves or act as their own general contractor.

"I always get a kick out of the guy who calls up and says, 'I built a couple sheds; I want to try to build this house,'" Cadenhead says. "I say, 'OK, what's your name?' because I'm going to hear from this guy a lot."

Pat Curry is a freelance writer based in Georgia.