Well said! I have to add this too: Architects don't just design pretty houses or draft plans. We are professional consultants who offer a variety of consultation services in many forms ranging from occasional hourly consults to regular on-site observation and management of construction contracts. Just because you have a stock plan and are on a budget does not mean you don't need an Architect. In fact, the cost over-runs that can occur due to the *lack* of an Architect consultant on your stock plan building project can cost you significantly more than what was "saved" on the Architect's consulting fee or even the costs "savings" for having foregone an Architect's custom design on the plans. And if you are contracting it yourself, the value of an experienced consulting Architect is immeasurable. Architects are not expensive designers. We are primarily thinkers, planners and puzzle solvers, and when it comes to building we are experienced ones!

Hi Sonya, We are going pretty slowly. We have got the block cleared, earthworks done, water on site, septic tank in with its irrigation area, electrical connection about to be made. But we are hoping to pass the major works to a builder from this stage, with the plumbing and electrical left out of his price. We have already established relationships with these contractors, and they are people the builder knows. We are also leaving the painting out of his quote as we may well do it ourselves. The builder will be responsible for the management and coordination of these trades. We have made this choice because we are aware of our lack of experience, and the number of decisions that have been needed already has really surprised us. Thank heavens our architect was dealing with them. Also, we prefer to have someone responsible for the entire project so we don't have arguments about who is responsible for things. Luckily we have found a builder who is interested in the work and comes with an excellent reputation for quality work. His price seems to be in the ball park of the other quotes we got. We are just negotiating the details with him now. Cheers Penny

Hi Micha, Without seeing the house and looking inside the roof cavity it's a little hard to say. However, I would suggest that they'll be a bit of engineering involved due to the number of walls you're looking to remove. Typically this might involve engineered steel beams, new foundations for the columns supporting those steel beams, framework, plastering, painting and floor work. To estimate your renovation costs try this renovation cost calculator to give you a rough sense of cost. All the best. Richard@themakeovergroup

your question has opened the flood gates!! so, not in any special order, first check with local council to clarify legal responsibilities as owner builder, i did a training course, organised special building insurance, had all the power tools and extension cords certified to be safe to use on site, set up safety barriers, did most of our demolition, hired machinery and scaffolding, rubbish removal (about 45x20kms trips to the local tip, recycling (required by BASIX) loaded, unloaded moved and rearranged millions of bricks, pavers and other supplies and equipment...Make sure you understand your plans and have thoroughly researched every aspect of the build down to placement of power points and outside taps and brand, texture, size and preferred colour of every surface (eg which gutter do you need?) and have that info in writing on paper with pictures and measurements immediately available in a BIG FOLDER and with extra copies of brochures and installation instructions (eg for taps, toilets, light fittings, sizes of window and floor covering and keep contact names and phone numbers and accounts with all the local suppliers, use email for negotiating quotes and confirm every agreement in writing ...address all suppliers by name and appreciate any special service, keep a diary of what's happening when, where and by whom, confirm delivery dates and manpower in advance, organise supplies on site well in advance (and keep a map of what is stored and where its stored and label the boxes to identify which item goes where) you don't want to be paying for trades to stand around while you try and find a forgotten tap...Manage the correct timeline for each stage and allow for contingencies.... i think the hardest part is having all the suppliers and trades take you seriously and treat your job with the importance that you think it deserves...try and think of every possible contingency and then expect the weather will ruin the timetable or the waterproofer has a family emergency and the plumber and tiler and cabinetmaker and electrician can't work on the bathroom for weeks (so have a list of alternate trades and optional wet weather projects that might be able to be done out of sequence )..we always think we'll save money by dealing directly to cut out the "finder fee" charged by the professional builder but, although we've had very successful outcomes for several owner built projects we eventually discovered that a good builder is worth his fee and eg ours was able to save about $8000 (30%) off the cost of windows for our latest project because his ongoing relationship with the supplier has earned him fabulous discounts and also his reputation meant deliveries were always on time and the quality of work is excellent because suppliers and trades want his repeat business and, although my tradies have always been very happy with my home made hot food and very impressed with not having to do the daily clean up, most owner builders usually have real jobs, homes and families to take care of so it's exhausting just thinking about it all!!