As if I don't have enough to do, a year or so ago my wife decided that we needed a new home.
Apparently, because of my collection of Macs and software boxes, we were running out of room. But when we went shopping for new homes, we quickly discovered that the price of real estate had gone through the roof.
So we decided to buy the empty lot next door and build our dream home on it, something we found we could do for half the cost of a pre-built home. I actually have considerable experience with large construction projects, and I had my Mac with all the appropriate software, so I did not foresee any problem.
SketchUp was built for architects so they could create new designs in minutes instead of days. The application is so simple to use my 10-year-old son was creating castles and bunkers with it after half an hour. Obviously, it's a little expensive for a toy but Last Software is considering a more play-orientated, lower-priced version.
SketchUp creates 3D walls exactly where you want them and then lets you drag windows and doors into the walls until you have your dream home. You can select roofing, floor treatments, lighting, landscaping and paint colours with a few clicks and voila! - you are ready for a walk-through.