Designing the house

Requirements. Get you requirements clear before talking to the designer, and be sure to separate "solutions" from requirements.

For example this is a requirement,

- Make the most of the views at the rear of the property. 

And this is a solution,

- Put a deck and a bi-fold door at the rear of the property.

Don't jump to solutions, it's the designers job to translate your requirements in to a solution. 

Write a document on what you want, better yet google search houses and do an image search. Grab the images that you like, the style the features etc in to a document and add to your requirements. This gives the designer a clear idea of the style that you are after.

The document will take some time to complete, you may want to write it over a week or two and keep reviewing and adding to it. Remember once the house is designed you aren't going to be able to just add another room!

Don't forget storage. My wife wanted a "mud room" between the garage and the house so that when we came home we could drop bags, umbrellas, shoes, coats in to a storage room and then move in to the rest of the house. This keeps the foyer of the house clear and tidy.