"Architect-designed houses are not accessible to all." This is a myth championed by the building industry. Alternatively, why not focus on the key benefits architects bring to a project. Here are a few for you: • Appoint an architect to your project and you’ll gain a home designed for the way you want to live.The alternative is a builder-designed home that suits what the builder is used to building. Quality builders will ask for plans and specifications to be thoroughly documented so that they can go ahead and do what they do best, which is build. Working out with the owner what you’re going to build and why is the architect’s role. • An architect manages planning approvals. This process is complex, often arbitrarily applied by many Councils, fraught with pitfalls for the novice and is ramped up every year with new hoops to jump. If you want a professional on your side who knows the territory, will go in to bat for you and will forge a way through this minefield, you need an architect. • If you’d prefer to put the works to tender to a number of builders rather than having to accept the quote of the builder you started the process with, you need an architect. • If you’d prefer to protect yourself with a proper, architect-managed ABIC contract that works equally for both parties and is legally enforceable, you need an architect. • An architect will minimise costly changes during construction as he or she will produce a proper level of drawings (expect 20 x A3 pages for a new home, rather than the 1-2 pages you’ll receive from a drafting service.). The reasons for this are that you have on paper exactly what you want to build. Without this, you are entering a contract with a builder with none of the details resolved. You wouldn’t do that if you were buying a house, so why do it when spending an equally significant amount of money? Unfortunately, some builders see this approach as an opportunity to happily accept constant changes from ‘project managing’ owners because it’s just another variation that he can charge for. The longer he is there, the better for his margins, particularly when there’s no contract to speak of. Finally, an architect is a specialist with a professional duty of care, irrespective of financial gain. In other words, they’re there to support and protect you, without benefit to themselves. No one else in the building industry can provide this.

Hi Sien, frequently tiles are built up covering either original stone hearth and/or concrete bases required to keep the fire away from timber so you need to figure out: a) Do you want to keep some sort of a fireplace b) Will it be functional and what kind of fuel do you want to use c) Are you prepared to put the work in on maintaining a traditional fireplace with wood fuel (lots of work - dirty, unpleasant work and chimney sweeping) or the cleaner gas/electric options. I don't think you need an interior designer - you can do it yourself - do your homework and talk to local fireplace retail specialists in your area so that you're making informed choices - this will help you decide what to pull out, what to keep, what to install. Then you can call in a fireplace maintenance expert (sweep and flue services) either to clean out your fireplace prior to pulling it out (stops more dirt/dust/soot from flying around your home then absolutely necessary) or doing the maintenance on it.

Hi Virginia, How did you go with your quest to find a designer for your house renovation? What a beautiful rock wall that is - and how wonderful to have river views that can be maximised by building up. A good designer will be able to take all your design priorities and combine these with strategies to maximise sustainable design principles i.e. lots of natural daylight and ventilation, material selections, correct orientation, good zoning within the house and opening up views, and direct access to garden areas from living areas etc. The real challenge is in identifying how to achieve everything you want with a budget that is realistic, and more often than not compromises may need to be made in your brief in order to match your budget, especially if that is a fixed budget. Go with a designer or architect whose work you like and with whom you feel comfortable, and the process should be rewarding. This is a big investment, and so its better to go with someone whose work you love and with whom you feel comfortable, who can also help you manage your budget and understand the whole project costs. On a final note, your ideas are lovely, and I can imagine a modestly sized new 2-level extension, which could link to the area above the rock wall, the garden below, and possibly the roof of the existing house (depending on where north is and where the views are!) would work really well. Good Luck!

You could always ask the architect the fees, rather than rely on what your friend says about somebody elses's sevices. I would be very surprised if it was 40% extra. I was recently involved with an interstate project where I could not be on-site. A local architect was engaged for the contract administration. The builder had not had an architect involved with the contract administration before. The architect saved the client tens of thousands of dollars as a lot of work was not up to standard, with the builder cutting corners, and substituting materials, which had to be rectified. This included pouring a concrete slab over a neighbours boundary! This appeared to be their standard practice as they were not used to having their work carefully scutinised, and payments withheld, as part of a contract administration process. At the end of the day I don't know if the builder made any profit, but the client did get the building work that they paid for, so received excellent value from the architect's contract administration services. I am sure that lots of people in Houzz who have horror stories of renovations that have developed problems, sometimes due unforeseen circumstances, and have ended up in a confrontational manner with a builder. There are also clients who have unrealistic expectations about the level of finishes that are physically achievable when working with an existing building (which is never square and perfect). If building work goes wrong it can be very expensive, and confrontational. Engaging an architect for contract administration is like an insurance policy and puts a buffer between a builder and client so things stay civil. The architect can work as a third party to administer any changes and variations that invariably creep into the building process in a fair and equal manner to both builder and client. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls