Thank you all for the advice. I am leaning towards the architect route, so we can at least see whether or not what we want will even be possible. DH wants BIL to do it, so I'm waiting to hear back if BIL will drive 5 hours to do a consultation for us, if we pay his expenses. He could use it for his portfolio, but I am open to using someone local, too.

Why don't you try calling a couple of architects instead of design build? Architects will either do the first meeting free at your house or charge
about $250 for the first meeting. It is worth it though as they will have good ideas.
We are just finishing up a large addition/renovation with an architect and separate builder and
I am so glad we went that route. Architect and Builder get along well and complement each other very well.
By the way, our architect pushed for our addition to be much larger than we wanted and now I am so glad we listened
to him.

I spoke to a bunch of design-build companies, who claim to have architects in house. Of course, the guy who came out from the company we liked was a builder. He has architects back at his company. I spoke to another firm where the rep claimed to also be an architect, but I don't know if I believe him. My BIL has an architecture degree, but isn't practicing.

Once I determined whether or not this was happening, I was going to call references. So far I had only read reviews from Angie's List.

Architect here again.
The main advantage of having plans BEFORE requesting bids is that you are comparing apples to apples. If you just called a GC, each one will "sell" you a different design, different level of finishes, etc.
An architect's set will set the baseline of WHAT and HOW should be built. Even during construction you can always go back to the architect's drawings to make sure things were spelled out from day one.
Good luck with the project!
ileana schinder

Definitely go bigger. I have never heard anyone say that they wish they had done a smaller addition.
However, plenty of people say they should have gone bigger once a few years have gone by and kids are older.
You don't need plans drawn up to decide. A good architect will be able to advise you in just one meeting.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Talk to an architect. A construction professional will be able to tell you the cost of such an addition and you'll be able to make a decision based on the equity you have in the house, the cost of a loan and the added value to the property once you finish.
I provide that service to clients all the time. I also work with loan officers that provide options on financing.
Good luck!
ileana (yes, i am an architect)
ileanaschinder.com

Thank you - I went to your site.

We've spoken at length to the builder/design firm we liked, though they mostly want us to commit before they will do much design work. I know that no one works for free, but its hard to even decide what to do without being able to see what it would look like. I don't know how I feel about forking over $3,500 to see whether or not I would hate our options.

OP, have you requested a list of addresses of prior projects that are similiar to your project.

My friend payed an architect for plans for bids ($9K) that they never used. It boiled down to not being able to visualize an addition as a seamless integration to their existing house.