A friend of mine used the Simon project. They engaged the architect for a hour. He gave them some very useful tips and expanded their knowledge about what they could achieve on their site. It was a house extension. They then incorporated those ideas into their plans when getting costings elsewhere. They did not feel under any pressure to use the architect with whom they had connected through the Simon community, (and in fact they didn't use him) but they do believe the "donation" for the consultation was money well spent.
Had a look at this on the web. The open day is the 7th of March this year. Fee is €75 and that goes to Simon community.There is a good choice of architects.
Looks interesting if you are just starting off. We hope to do some work to the house next year so might look into this to get some initial ideas from an architect.
Has anyone else used the Simon Opendoors in previous years?