Spend the money and hire a registered landscape architect to at least do a master plan for you. With the different "pieces" you're thinking about, I think it's important...he/she should be able to help you strategically locate things to avoid problems down the road...some of the potential down the road problems he/she should consider are phasing (for cost effectiveness and ease of construction), eventual drainage patterns, issues with poorly planned spaces (areas not large enough, competing uses, etc), and building code/zoning hurdles, among other things. A good master plan is a wonderful thing to keep in your back pocket...I have one and have used it as a guide for my yearly projects, turning a once-blank lot into a (I consider) helluva yard/garden, or "yarden" as I call it over the past 5 years...it's our living room for 8 months of the year (except when we want to watch TV) and very likely wouldn't have turned out nearly as perfect without having a guide to keep me and my projects focused. Most LAs will probably charge you somewhere in the neighborhood of $1000-3000 depending on how complex and involved things get and how many "pretty pictures" you want. If you want full construction documents (planting plans, staking plans, grading/drainage plans, etc, etc), you'll pay substantially more. Right now, if you play your cards right, you may be able to find a real deal though...many LAs are very hungry and looking for work. Good luck!

I have built 2 houses. One with a little designer help, and one without any designer help. We have "mistakes" in our first house that we are now correcting before we sell it. A designer could have helped us avoid those and I am sure we would have had a better laid out basement plan! (it is pretty bad.) Whenever I have had a designer, they have usually saved me money by choosing a cheaper option, using things I already had, or avoided mistakes. We had a little designer help on the 2nd (vacaton) home. The things she picked out were great. Again, we made a couple changes on the plans, this time (our 2nd house) the changes we made were better, but I think the designer could have really helped make those changes great! To save money on the designer, I usually do a lot of thinking and leg work before I meet with her. I collect fabrics from Joanns (cheaper) bring tile from big box store, or tile store, I just try to be ready knowing what I want and avoid more hourly fees due to my indecisiveness or trips to stores. So I say go with the designer, but know what you want, and choose carefully. Ask the hourly fee or fee per job. Check a few and talk to happy customers. And make sure she knows your budget. I am OK if some things come from Joanns, big box stores, etc. My designer was too. Another designer I worked with couldn't use cheaper things, so I won't use her again. Make sure you and the designer are on the same page. And have fun!

We found our builder first. We found our architect second. We love them both, but there was a communication disconnect between them, so we ended up having to hire a second architect to create the actual buildable blueprints from the first architect's draft. Neither architect is involved in the actual build process (other than that the first architect and I have become friends and go out for coffee when our schedules allow, and I've texted her design questions a few times, but I am not pestering her any more than I pester my best friend who used to work at a granite distributor before she became an at-home mom. :) There have been a few times where I've wished I had some architectural hand-holding (deciding drywall features, cabinetry colors, granite-panic) but overall it hasn't been too stressful going it alone. Finding our builder first worked well for us because we didn't want to do a competitive bidding process -- we just wanted the builder in town with the best reputation for building on an extreme slope. I can see how, with different variables, it would be best to choose the architect first, and perhaps choose the builder based on the architect's recommendations or based on a competitive bidding process. Some people even choose their architect first, and then the architect tags along when shopping for the lot.

Or if you don't want a house that's a disaster because there aren't strict codes; codes that protect people from shoddy work or bad engineering. For example, I'm in FL. After hurricane Andrew, codes became much stricter and thankfully so since most of the homes that blew apart in Homestead wouldn't have if they were built to stricter codes with things like hurricane strapping. So you want to double your cost so that it shows hurricane strapping on the plan? You don't need an architect to add hurricane strapping, your builder can easily accommodate that. If you receive shoddy work, I recommend finding another builder. We're getting ready to do a whole house remodel and addition to our one story home. We've found a builder that we like and will be working with an architect to prepare our plans. I'm anticipating that working with an architect will give us the cohesive exterior look we want, as opposed to an addition that looks like it was just an afterthought slapped on to the original house. I'm hoping for a finished design that looks like a beautifully renovated farmhouse that was added on over time. I'm also hoping to achieve the most ideal layout, since the current footprint is so lacking. I know what I want but need help translating that into a workable design. I think you're making the right decision.