re: Are house plans supposed to be difficult?

Just some general advice from someone that just went through a grueling home addition. Find a detail oriented designer/architect to work with YOU and select every single component and spec of the project BEFORE you engage a builder. Do NOT hire a builder to do custom design unless that is their speciality and then my above advice still applies. If you just sketch out plans, even with a engineering review and layout for mechanical, plumbing, electrical, but don't draw in doors, windows, appliances, fixtures, etc. you will encounter a lot of headaches and design flaws when you try and drop that stuff in later. It sounds like common sense but there are a lot of lazy builders and designers out there that don't want to deal with this type of stuff on the front end and then leave you having to compromise when push comes to shove.