Owning your own home

Anyone know anything about the process of converting a loft? Ours is part done (has a window) and we want to finish it off... Spoke to a quantity surveyor friend who said we'd need an architect to draw up plans - surely it's not that complicated?

It can be. Lofts are not always designed to take the loads associated with a habitable room. There are also building control things like headheight and planning permission to deal with.