Architects are very expensive but in my opinion a good design goes a long way.
I have been in many boring houses that people got an engineer or wood work teacher to draw up. Or even worse a plan from a design book. More often than not these options result in a house that misses key design principles and is lacking despite the big money spent. Think of the long dark corridor in the bungalow!
A good architect designed house is worth an extra €20,000. A friend of mine had the big decision of whether or not to pay the expensive fees but I persuaded him to opt for a local Architect as I had been in one of his houses and was very impressed. The end product was and is very good and is nothing like the ideas he had or the engineer he was initially talking to. He paid something like £5,000 which was alot at the time but now it seems like money well spent.
From my experience Architects will ask for big fee but will usually work for less if you offer them less. I employed an architect to do a drawing for me for £6,500 for a house that would have cost £150,000 to build at the time. This included planning. He wanted to do the full package and charge 10% but I insisted that all I needed was the design / drawings and planning. I waved 6.500 at him and all he did was site visit and sketches - his draughtman a French student did the working drawings on the computer. I was very happy with the finished product - although after working with him on this project I now know how they think or approach work and would be less fearful of having a go at designing myself in the futher.
I think the site visit part can be a bit of a rip - the same Architect did a job for another friend and he only visited the site about 4 times when the builder was there (I worked on this project as a labourer and the builder was not impressed by his quick pit stops). My own worry was that the Architect was not there when the concrete was poured in the foundations!
The end product was a very nice transformation of a farm house....
Anyways - I personally will employ an architect when I find a new site.
Best of luck and remember to be assertive and ask questions and make the Architect work for his/ her money.
Best of luck