By Ric Manning
The Courier-Journal

Your dream house might have palm trees in the front yard, a kitchen with red granite countertops, a master bedroom suite with a walk-in closet and a balcony that overlooks the Gulf of Mexico.

And it will cost you less than $100 to build - virtually at least.

You can create dream homes on Windows computers with a $99 program for Windows called Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer Suite 6.0.

The program is a home hobbyist version of Chief Architect, a home design program for professionals that sells for more than $1,000.

Although Home Designer won't produce the same detailed plans that you could hand to a builder, it does offer several high-end features, such as 3-D views and walk-throughs, a materials list and a library of more than 4,000 fixtures and furnishings.

The program comes with a database of more than 1,500 sample house plans - or you can build your own from scratch.

Start your project by drawing a simple rectangle using the program's Wall tool. Then use the mouse to grab each wall and move it in or out until it matches the target dimensions. Adding interior walls is just as easy.

Once the walls are in place, you can use the object library to add kitchen appliances, bathroom fixtures, furniture, cabinets and floor and wall treatments. The library includes dozens of different styles and colors of tile, carpet and hardwood, and you can import images to create your own.

The library doesn't have every type of cabinet or furniture that you might find in a store. There's no waterbed or beanbag chair, for instance. But there's a good chance that you'll find something that comes close.

Once the furniture and fixtures are in place, you can tweak the colors and textures using the Material Painter option. For example, one click can change a countertop from tile to granite or switch a cabinet finish from white to cherry.

The lighting option lets you choose colors, textures and lighting styles and adds so much detail to your plans that they look almost photographic.

The best part of the program may be its ability to show your creation in 3-D. The "camera view" lets you examine a room from a variety of perspectives. What will visitors see when they come in the front door? Will the TV in the media cabinet be visible from the breakfast bar?

The program's "dollhouse view" lets you look down on your 3-D floor plan. You can rotate the house and zoom in and out of a particular room. You also can create an animated walk-through and generate 3-D images to e-mail to friends.

In addition to house plans, the program has a full set of landscaping tools. You can build sidewalks, decks, fences, ponds and pools and decorate with more than 1,000 different trees and plants.

Although the program is designed for amateur users, it can get complicated and occasionally frustrating. You'll want to get comfortable with some of the software's simpler features before you tackle a curved staircase or an unusual roof design.

The program comes with a 234-page manual, but it doesn't cover everything. For example, you won't find "walk-through" in the index. A good place to start is with the tutorial CD. It includes 30 videos that show you how to use the program's tools.

About the program

What: Better Homes and Gardens Home Designer Suite 6.0

Price: $99

Requirements: Windows 98 or higher; 2-gigahertz processor; 512 megabytes of memory, 3-D accelerated video card recommended.

For information: www.homedesignersoftware.com