Custon grid with measurements for architectural drawing?

I’ve started drawing a floor plan of my house with the intention of making a 3D model (BIG renovations planned), but find it tedious to layout without any easy way to see the measurements. I’ve got the grid set to the proper size and scaling is set, but not having any measurements means I have to manually count the grid lines when making new vertices. I tried enabling the measure thing (it displays length of edges) but don’t find that it works all that well.
Ideally I’d have a grid in feet (subdivided into inches) with measurements at regular intervals. I’m about to make one in Illustrator and import it into Blender. I’ll then size it and lay it on the ground to use as a reference…or is there an easier way?
Thanks for any help or suggestions folks.
Bob