u/Emotional_Act9488

I'm sure there are a million similar posts somewhere on reddit, but somehow, I had no luck finding them, so I do apologise if everyone is tired of hearing this question.

We live in the Highlands and have a large plot of land (croft) with a derelict building on it. There was a house fire about 70 years ago, and the plot has been unoccupied since. We work the land, but living on the land would allow us to do far more than we are currently capable of doing, so we want to entertain the idea of building a family home. Except, the budget would be extremely tight.

We know architects are highly skilled in creating floor plans and can work with other trades to finalise elements of the plan. But they also cost a large amount of money and not required in order to secure planning permission or building warrant (although im sure theyre are extremely helpful to get both of those sorted)

We have created a floorplan for the (potential) future house, which is a rather simple 120m2 rectangular 2 storey, 4 bedroom stick frame house. We can design the kitchen and bathroom layouts to know where we want sockets and pipes to go. We know quite a few tradesmen to seek advice and assistance from, but I am sure there is far more we'd be missing if we were to skip an architect.

What other things do we need to consider and account for? Please be kind but direct, this is an idea in its infancy still, and we want to estimate how much we can do ourselves and how much money we would need to make it happen.

Any advice is welcome!

I'm sure there are a million similar posts somewhere on reddit, but somehow, I had no luck finding them, so I do apologise if everyone is tired of hearing this question.

We live in the Highlands and have a large plot of land (croft) with a derelict building on it. There was a house fire about 70 years ago, and the plot has been unoccupied since. We work the land, but living on the land would allow us to do far more than we are currently capable of doing, so we want to entertain the idea of building a family home. Except, the budget would be extremely tight.

We know architects are highly skilled in creating floor plans and can work with other trades to finalise elements of the plan. But they also cost a large amount of money and not required in order to secure planning permission or building warrant (although im sure theyre are extremely helpful to get both of those sorted)

We have created a floorplan for the (potential) future house, which is a rather simple 120m2 rectangular 2 storey, 4 bedroom stick frame house. We can design the kitchen and bathroom layouts to know where we want sockets and pipes to go. We know quite a few tradesmen to seek advice and assistance from, but I am sure there is far more we'd be missing if we were to skip an architect.

What other things do we need to consider and account for? Please be kind but direct, this is an idea in its infancy still, and we want to estimate how much we can do ourselves and how much money we would need to make it happen.

Any advice is welcome!