Builder or architect?

[Smashmallow]

Apologies, in advance, for the long post. I just want to get enough detail in so I can get the best advice.

We moved into a renovated farmhouse a few years ago. I love it, but would like more space in the kitchen and possibly another bedroom and a boot room.

I'm really not sure how to go about it. Our house is old and has been extended multiple times by previous owners. A lot of our "internal" walls where originally external walls and I know a few fireplaces have been bricked up and are lurking under the plaster.

Our current kitchen is very close to our big brick sheds and quite like the idea of knocking down our old sheds (currently just used for storage), rebuilding them to look a bit like a barn comversion and putting in a big open plan kitchen/diner/living room in with a gallery bedroom. I could use the space our kitchen currently occupies to do a utility room, pantry and boot room.

I would also be open to extending the house in other ways to get the space that we need. The kids bedrooms and the 2nd reception room are small and I think some walls could do with being knocked through. I'm worried that this wont be straightforward because the house is so old and quirky.

What's the best way to go about sussing out the various options? Get in touch with a builder or an architect? How much does it cost just for an initial chat and some opinions and options prior to formal plans being drawn up?

Sounds like a big job so I would think architect and quantity surveyor then builder tenders. That is unless you have a v strong vision, trust a good builder are really good at project managing - then just go to builder

I definitely don't have strong vision. This is my worry. I don't want to start tearing down my house and make loads of expensive mistakes, or do all that work and hate it.

Architect. Your house sounds a bit complicated and you need advice as to how to best use the space. I don't know how much an initial meeting would cost- a quick chat free, an actual on site meeting maybe a few hundred, which perhaps could be offset against the rest if you go with them? Archtects are highly trained (seven years training) so they aren't cheap.
The architect should go through several options with you, perhaps confirm things with a structural engineer about what is actually possible (anything is if you throw enough money at it) within your budget. Once you are happy, formal drawings for planning, structural drawings for supports info and building regs. Then you find a builder.
Set your budget first, then find an architect. Some just do it up to drawings, or through planning, or through choosing a builder, or through to project managing.

Definitely architect. Decide your price bracket, put aside at least 10% for contingency, then take it from there.

If you want to have a cheap chat with someone have a look for an ask an architect promotion - I think they do different ones depending on where you are (ive used them in both london and NI) - you pay £40 donation to charity and they come and talk to you for an hour (or you go to them sometimes) and they cab talk about roughly what they'd do and can generally give you an idea of how much it would cost. When we were looking at big ideas in our current house that we knew we wanted an architect for, I used it as a way to get different ideas abs ended up using one of the guys we tried as he was so on point with what we wanted.

Architect for sure. We had a relatively straightforward alteration to our house but an architect helped realise a better way of configuring and also considered the boring/unseen stuff like drains surveys and also organised all the planning (and listed building consent which applied to us). The initial consultation was £250 for a site survey.

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate your input. I am having a look into the ask an architect scheme.

Can anyone recommend a good architect in NI? I really want to keep the property looking like a farmhouse with an old barn and a lot of the architects look books are full of very contemporary box-shaped buildings.

Agree with the above. The external walls will likely be load bearing and a big job to move around. I’d be speaking to a proper building consultancy firm who would deal with architects/structural engineers and QSs for you.

The QS and structural stuff will usually be outsourced anyway but you can also look at drafting companies. Builders describing themselves as 'design and build' tend to outsource the design bit too.
Architect is the obvious answer but people often overlook drafting companies which can yield same results for less money