Hi Keswing, I'm not sure if this is helpful but we went through a similar (ish) process about 6 months ago and I found it all very confusing at the start as to what I needed from who and in what order! What I learnt from it was... We already had a very good idea of what we wanted (we got an interior designer / concept planner on board right at the start- highly recommended), so just used a local recommendation of an architect to do our basic drawings - we needed these for building regs and also to give to the builder so we had something to base the 'contract on'. We paid £500 for these drawings only. (For comparison we had architect quote for nearly £2k from a chartered firm) We also needed structural calculations for building regs and to give to the builders alongside the architects drawings. The builders needed the structural calcs so they knew what size steels etc to buy / install / quote against. This was £900 just on a separate structural engineer. It's worth noting our calcs were reasonably complicated and involved a site visit; had he been able to do them from the architect's drawings alone (quite often this is possible) then it would only have been £300. It then cost us £400 for all of our buildings regs submissions / certificates on top of the above. It's worth finding out from your two different quotes what they both will and won't include; Will either / both then require separate calculations from a structural engineer and therefore additional costs or is that already included in the quote with the architectural technologist? Does either quote include building regs and / or planning submission? Hopefully then you'll know that you're comparing the two quotes like for like and can also know how much of your budget is going to be allocated to fees. Hope this helps and good luck! Claire

Hi Munim, I think it looks good, and you've seemingly picked up everything in the brief. The only thing I'd consider and this might just be a personal preference for straight lines is seeing if you could locate the guest WC within the width of the stairs (appreciate the room will need to be longer as the width reduces) with the door being located within the hallway rather than the circulation area. But as mentioned, great design.

Sorry Ellie, I’m having problems loading a plan. I wondered if you had two loos, one under the stairs by creating a corridor ( ie making the current dining room narrower) and the other at the back of the garage by closing the current kitchen access off. The idea of a ‘secret‘ door to the right of the fireplace would be good, if in budget. I would then make the kitchen area, where you currently have your sink, a utility/pantry freeing up the rest of the kitchen and extension for your kitchen/dining/living room. A suggestion for this area is to keep the kitchen where it is on the far right wall tappering into a study area and have a peninsula island coming down from the dining room chimney wall. The table in the corner by the stair wall and a sofa/tv in the lefthand corner. Hope it makes sense.

Hi Katie, I'd love to help you mum with redesigning her forever home. While a £30-40k budget may be a bit low to allow for an architect to deliver a full architectural service I can help her get the design right with my sketch design package. You can find out more about that here: https://www.i-architect.co.uk/bpp.html Best wishes with your home redesign! Jane award winning chartered architect eco-home and conservation area specialist www.i-architect.co.uk For helpful videos watch my YouTube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@iarchitect