Hi Suzanne The key is to do all your design, building permit drawings, an excellent specifications, ordering of some appliances (not necessarily delivered) and "timing in" a Builder well before you start any physical building work. By the way if you are removing walls downstairs and upstairs you are doing structural work - depending on how the roof and the walls are supported. You can take various process in your approach but a good design is always the key - this means that before you begin your Building Permit drawings you are holding in your hand a design that you can feel in you "gut" that you are very happy with - "you" means all stakeholders in the project. To achieve this it takes time - it is difficult to do one concept of a design and built your first draft, I have found from past experience that it takes about three goes at concept designs to eventually distill a good Sketch Plan - or final idea. If you allow some time to measure up and do the initial existing conditions and then some discussion and eventually produce the first concept, then meetings and discussion to revise and change things, then also allow for daily events three to six months will easily pass. Then you may need planning permit - depending on local planning laws - (Council may tell you six to eight weeks but six to eight months may be more realistic especially if you are in any sensitive council) and hoping you get no objections - considering that yours appears to be internal work it may not apply - unless you change or put in a new window or do any external work - again depending on local town planning regulations. Then Building permits Drawings and consultants (if any), a good eight to ten weeks and then instructing and employment of a Builder - Builders are not necessarily ready to build on your timing - so you may have to wait before he/she can start on your job. So when you allow for family commitments which always take priority, and work commitments that must come first, eighteen months to three years (if planning with objections) from start to build may be a good estimate. Then the building process which may take six to nine months and you will get to eighteen months to over three years. Any competent Building Designer, Drafts-person, Architect can and do produce the required documents and administer the contract if required. - it just depends how much you are willing to invest in the process. An Architect may charge 10% to 15% or more of the FINAL building cost - so if you are going to spend $3000,000.00 he would get $30,000.00 to $45,000.00 or more, not including payments to consultants and authorities which are generally excluded from design fees. If you stage the process - get a good design done by a Building Designer that works on a fixed fee, and then you may get a drafts-person that specializes only in working drawings to do you Building Permit documents - (or the same Building designer if you are happy with the process) and get a good Builder and do your own contract administration - you can do this if you worked with your Building Designer thorough the design and working drawing, your cost for the whole design process may be quite different. You will be confident enough to administer your own contract if you have good drawings which are well detailed and have followed the design process throughout - Good complete, competent, well detailed, well specified and with accurate finishing schedules documents is the key. This is what the Builder uses to build - if he has to wait six weeks because you did not make up your mind on and appliance or tile selection, the process would fall over and you cost will dramatically increase. To a Builder the more the omission and changes = More waste of time and more cost to the client. The longest and most difficult stage is to get a good concept and sketch design before moving on to the other stages, give yourself time - if you go fast and don't follow the process and give it to "some expert" to do the whole process and you become a bystander paying the "money" the result could be painful. As you can see there are a lot of factors - ring somebody up (use skype if there is as distance issue) , find a Building Designer you can work with and have a chat. Like all things it will take a few revisions to get it right , but if you are willing to work at it, it will payoff in the end. The first thing is to draw up the existing conditions to scale so that an initial proposal showing possibilities can be worked on. I would be willing to work on this project with you online, I hope this is of some help. Regards Michael Manias mm407p@gmail.com

The good kind of mad! (Most) old houses ooze character, warmth and heart as much as new ones do chemicals and cheap fittings. I am a housebody, and love being in my house - I spend my money on it, instead of out clubbing and yes, there are always unexpected costs (new hot water service, leaking toilet...), but if you were renting you would have nothing of your own at the end anyway. Three years ago I bought my first house, a fairly original sandstone 98 year old lady in need of some TLC. No builder's reports in this little town, but then she cost me less than a landcruiser... Things I planned to do, but took forever because of rusting nails, old sizing, old quality workmanship include painting the whole thing, top to bottom, pulling up axminster carpet and getting the floors polished, putting fans and air conditioning in. Things I was hoping to avoid for a few more years but can't, include replacing the original roof, swapping the three-cupboard sleepout kitchen with a bedroom, redoing the bathroom, complete with new plumbing and actual drainage to the septic pit (which I had to have fixed a bit), and then I think the best option for the back room and laundry is just to rebuild them....But I don't regret this house, or the journey it's taken me on. Even if it has turned out to be a much more expensive journey than I thought! With time and google, you can do a lot yourself. Before I moved back three years ago I had always been n provided accommodation, so had never used a drill and only changed a couple of light globes, but now... I took a chimney and fireplace down on my own, then re-pointed the stone and put in a ceiling panel to close it up. I have painted, put up shelves, taken down cupboards that were built into walls, patched cracks, filled gaps, pried off skirting boards, and generally turned it into a home. For the more major stuff, like putting a doorway through a foot thick stone wall and rewiring an original bedroom to house a modern kitchen, I am getting the professionals in. good luck!

Seems like advice has been well covered here, but to add my 2 cents.........it ultimately depends on what you are seeking and expecting from a professional. Off the bat engaging a professional is not something you should "accept" to have to do, rather it should be something that you are actively seeking........I work with people in a range of contexts but to be clear there is a difference between people who are expecting to "buy" a particular end result with some knowledge of what that will be, and others who engage in a professional design process and embark on/trust in the "journey" so to speak that works towards an customised/crafted end result. It's horses for courses and one way or the other is not necessarily suited for everyone. For example, my particular way of operating is probably similar to Dr Retro in that I approach projects with flexibility and respect for the client's needs and specific context. The creativity comes in to play in negotiating these unique aspects and therefore results vary widely from project to project. Alternatively you can find designers/architects who essentially are a "brand" delivering similar end "products" in that you'll be able to get a clear idea beforehand as to likely what end result you will get with them at the helm. Similarly to Dr Retro, I provide a particular stage of frontend/contained service that I call a "Feasibility" exercise in that various options and scenarios are considered specific to client's particular needs/goals within the properly analysed context and some proper/hard costings are applied. This provides the client with legitimate and viable options in broad format and critical information to ascertain what the best balance/option will be for them. For example, we can consider scenarios of alterations/additions in various configurations as well as comparison to new rebuild scenarios - there is never a single right or wrong "way" as to how to achieve certain requirements, however I do find ultimately that the Cost is the ultimate controller and without proper and professional understanding on what particular design moves/options one way or the other will cost you really are literally walking around in the dark in regards to making critical decisions moving forward for your project. You are (not surprisingly) stuck here, I deal with this situation all the time I know exactly where you are at.....all I can say is that there are professionals available who can help you achieve the best outcome, and you need to consider/understand and be comfortable that this is part of the process and is a necessary and critical investment front end to ensure the eventual physical build has been properly considered........ultimately my advice is to research and seek a suitable professional you can trust and work with :) PD

So true. And so bloody disappointing. The least effort and quickest sale seems to be the motivating factors for most agents. I actually just had a really positive experience with a lovely REA in Adelaide though! She has done a fantastic job, always transparent and honest with me and has made an effort to get me the best price. I got a fantastic offer just yesterday after 6 days on market and she's chasing up better counter offers now. I'm really lucky it's a hot market to sell, which helps a lot. I'm considering writing letters to people in streets I love and doing a letterbox drop. I figure I've got nothing to lose and I know people who've bought houses this way! I think that people's distrust of REAs might make an off market sale appealing to some. Who knows...worth a try!