What type of drawings?

revit and cad 

Turquoise HB

maybe chief architect?  isn't that supposed to be BIM tailored for residential?

autocad is probably the way to go since everyone knows it.  haven't tried revit.  used archicad... sharp learning curve, drawings look like crap without knowing the program inside and out.

You might want to buy and electric eraser, so you can erase in the afternoon everything  drawn in the morning.  Oh ya, Save Friday afternoons for poching.

3ds max would be a good choice for graphic illustration. No potential home owner is going to dislike a animation and still images of their home before it is built. 

If you're looking for something to do construction drawings with, and want it cheap (free), then I'd definitely recommend you take a look at draftsight - I've played with it before (and know of someone who uses it for residential design), and if you're somewhat familiar with autocad, it'll be pretty easy to pick up. Downside is I don't believe there's a ton of support short of a couple forums. If you're looking for the security/reliability of a large, familiar company like Autodesk, take a look at their Revit/AutoCAD LT bundle - I think it's something like $1400.

Poche' po-shay Fr. Rub some shit in it.

^ That sounds like my go-to work method

Looking for the best way to 'design' in 3d, easily make changes, and create 2d architectural drawings (with good lineweight/hatching control). Final construction drawings/rendering/animation are not needed.

sketchup.  don't they have some thing where you can export a 2d line drawing along a slice plane?  you don't even need the 2d drawings if you're not doing construction drawings do you?  you can use the slice feature to see floor plans.  it's also apparently easy and fast to learn.

Playdo do you have any cad or architectural design software training?  If you know AutoCAD then Draftsight is best - free and very similar and not as top-heavy as AutoCAD.  If not then one of those homebuilder software programs would probably be best, because I imagine they are very easy to learn and will have pre-determined things like cabinets installed int he software already.

i'm not too keen on this website but when i first was introduced to it, it seemed pretty nifty. 

http://www.floorplanner.com/

"What software is most recommended for designing a small residential project, and creating drawings, with 1-2 employees?"

and

"Final construction drawings/rendering/animation are not needed."

So, you'll have employees, and  you won't be producing construction drawings, or any renderings?  So what ARE you doing? 

Honestly, Sketchup is probably your best bet for something like that. It will also probably be cheapest.

Not to toot the Rhino horn (that wording is causing some disturbing visual imagery...) because I can't comment first hand how effective the workflow is but the VisualARQ plug-in is supposed to help with drawing production (in a Revit-like way?)

http://www.visualarq.com/

And Rhino can for sure do CAD-like layouts, albeit in a more limited capacity:

http://wiki.mcneel.com/rhino/layouts5

If you do wind up going with Sketchup, spend some quality time here: https://sites.google.com/site/sketchupsage/tips-tricks

I really don't get it. In the time it takes to research software - not including the time spent learning how to use it - you could have drawn the project by hand twice.

Or is that an obsolete skill?

Donna: Yes, I have 3d experience. I'll take a good look at SU, VisualArq and Draftsight.

The problem isn't doing it the first time, Miles. It's changing and updating and coordinating everything after that, and when you (inevitably) need to change everything. That's where doing it all in the computer comes into its own.

^ Doesn't quite sound like the program for "a small residential project".

Even small projects change and need coordination.

I still have no idea what Playdo and his employees are actually going to do with the software....  

I'm currently well into setting up a house project in Revit.  I have to say, I love that program.  I like to set up the sheets themselves comprehensively very early in the process.  Plans, sections, elevations, schedules, multiple perspective views, section perspectives, etc., etc......it's incredibly useful as a design tool -- changes update on all the views and sheets as you make design decisions.