On one of my free consultation calls this year, a homeowner opened with: "I assumed most architects wouldn't be interested in a job this small." A few minutes later she asked the question underneath it: "Do we need an architect, an interior designer, or neither?"

It's one of the most common questions I'm asked, and it deserves a straight answer, including the parts that don't flatter architects.

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It's the first question almost everyone asks me, usually in the first five minutes of the first call: roughly what will this cost?

It's a fair question. You can't decide whether to renovate, extend or move without some sense of the number. So I'll give you the published ranges for 2026 below. But I'll also explain why I stopped relying on them, and what I look at instead when I'm helping someone set a real budget.

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(Newport, Williamstown, Spotswood, Kingsville + surrounds)

If you're planning a renovation or extension in Hobsons Bay, you're in a very particular pocket of Melbourne: coastal light, old housing stock, tight blocks, and a planning environment that rewards restraint and good judgement.

A lot of renovation advice online is generic. It assumes big blocks, predictable planning rules, and houses that were built sometime after 1990. Hobsons Bay is different. Here, the "simple" houses can hide complex constraints — and the best renovations are the ones that feel effortless because the thinking has been done upfront.

This guide is written from the perspective of a renovation architect in Hobsons Bay. It covers what makes the area unique, when an extension needs a planning permit, heritage and flood overlays, knock-down rebuilds, common design traps, the approaches that tend to work best here, and how to think about cost and timing so you can make smarter decisions (and avoid expensive regret).

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A guide for homeowners using an architect-administered lump-sum contract (e.g. ABIC).

Construction is where your project finally comes to life: walls are built, materials arrive on site, and all the months of thinking, drawing, and planning become real. It can also be the phase with the most questions, emotions, and moving parts.

This guide explains how your architect supports you throughout construction, how a lump-sum contract works, and what ABIC contract administration looks like day-to-day.

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A homeowner's guide to choosing a smoother, more cost-certain way to build.

Building or renovating a home is exciting, but it can also feel confusing — especially when you start hearing terms like "procurement method", "tenders", and "ECI". This guide breaks down two options we often recommend to homeowners: Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) and negotiated tender.

These approaches are especially well-suited to budget-conscious residential projects, where cost control, communication, and problem-solving matter just as much as design quality. Let's make this simple.

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When people start planning a renovation or new home, there's often a quiet pressure in the background: What if we get this wrong? What if our needs change? What if this house no longer suits us in ten years?

These are sensible questions. And they're often the reason people feel overwhelmed before they've even begun.

The good news is this: planning a home that works now and later doesn't mean predicting the future perfectly. It means designing with flexibility, clarity and restraint from the start.

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Buying a home is an emotional process. You walk in, imagine your life there, notice the light, the garden, the kitchen you could update one day. It feels promising. But feeling and function aren't the same thing.

As architects, we're often brought in after a purchase — when clients realise something doesn't quite work, when they feel they need a sizeable extension, or when planning or building controls make their project too challenging to tackle alone. More often than not, the issues were there from the start. They just weren't obvious.

Here are a few of the things an architect looks for when assessing a property, and that most buyers understandably miss.

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If you're thinking about renovating, there's a good chance you've asked yourself this question already.

Your home feels cramped. Rooms don't quite work the way you need them to. Daily life feels harder than it should. And so the obvious conclusion appears: we need an extension.

But in many cases, what a home really needs isn't more space — it's a better layout.

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If you're planning a home renovation for the first time, there's a good chance you're feeling stuck before you've even begun.

You might have ideas. You might have a Pinterest board. You might just have a persistent feeling that your home isn't quite working anymore.

But when it comes to knowing where to start — who to talk to, what decisions matter, or how to avoid expensive mistakes — everything feels… unclear.

If that sounds familiar, you're not behind. You're exactly where most people start.

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