Ground Breaking and Tree Killing

[Bushler]

SlowP, that's what my wife and I did when we built. Found the floor plans we liked in a book and had a local architect make the corrections for code. Were not in an earthquake zone, but are in a wind zone. We had to make some changes to the window locations, and add some plywood shear panels, and some additional anchor bolts through the bottom plates. Not much, and a lot less expensive than having one drawn from scratch.

Stick built is way better than manufactured, for a lot of reasons. You're on the right track, and will enjoy the process and have a great home when you're finished.