Carpenter is right , I'm an Civil Engineer and when one of my friends come to me, as they sometimes do , and ask me to do plans give them ideas etc I run for the hills.
Our job is firstly to ensure the structural integrity of whatever it is we're building, second that its "fit for use" , and thirdly that all necessary building regs and fire regs are been conformed with in the fabric of the building.
Its so easy to spot an Architect designed house Vs a Civil Engineering background draughtsman designed house , the former will have the wow factor here there & everywhere whilst the latter will boxes and squares to beat the band , anything that makes for an easy life on autocad.
Hayabusa you must have some ideas of your own, go to an Architect, a proper one mind you , RIAI member , speak to them , bring them to the site , discuss aspect etc , ask them to do you a few concept sketches, these will allow you to take a bit from all the ideas presented, then decide what your gonna build, your only gonna get one run at building this house and design changes later will cost a fair bit.
The fees Architects charge are negotiable make no mistake about that, and at the end of the day as winne said it would be criminal to skimp at this stage and regret it later.
Hope it all works out for you and you get the house of your dreams.
P.S. If you ever wanna build a motorway, bridge , resevoir , marine jetty etc etc pm me