What kind of project management experience of any kind do you have?

How good are you at haggling?

How good are you at research?

How good are you at handling conflict, and incompetence?

Are you a good cheerleader,

Are you a good leader?

Can you separate your personal needs and wants for your home from the "business" aspect of completing this project?

Everything that ants said, plus: be prepared for everything to take much more time. Will you be patient enough?

We did a total DIY -- everything ourselves except for the tile work. We do know our limitations! It took about a year and a half, with well over a year of planning and getting ready before that. But it was a project of love for us -- a restoration. I think you have to be very personally invested to get through it. If the primary motivation is saving money, I would probably not encourage you to do it.

The one lesson I learned being my own GC was how vital it is to be able to take time off from your own work in the middle of the day to be present at the house, even at a moment's notice. If one or both of you can do that, the rest will follow.

Exactly what circuspeanut said. DH is retired and we could not have GC'd our own project had he not been always available. As to the time thing... it took us 3 years and we're still not done. We did a ton of the work ourselves, took breaks in between, and saved up the cash to pay for each project. I'm sure we saved about 50K. It was that; or the remodel never would have happened.

Like others have said, if you can't be there when the work is being done, don't do it. We were our own GC because no one would give us a quote after seeing the project firsthand and it worked out great but we had over two decades of DYI experience and had hired out many subs before. I was also home all the time and DH could come home as needed. Can't emphasize enough how important it is to be on site during the actual work. Also, make sure you work with your city departments and get all the proper permits.

I did several years ago -- out of necessity to save $$$, and because some didn't want to be bothered because it was a relatively smaller job and we wanted to do some DIY where we could. It worked out very well, although I was fortunate to have a great KD at Home Depot, and my construction/installer/dry-wall contractor was excellent. I did spend every spare moment reading GW kitchens, appliances, tile, etc. to learn as much as possible!

Being your own GC is about quality control as well as the time to be on site, and the 6x more time that the job will take. Can you tell if a plumber used the right drain setup for the new island sink? What about the electrician wiring the undercabinet lights correctly? Do you know enough to be able to sign off on the jobs and hand them their checks and never see them again? If you don't know enough, do you have the time to research these things until you DO understand what and how the trades need to do to accomplish the job?

Most people can certainly GC renovations if they have enough time to properly research the job on the front end. For many, by the time they accumulate that knowledge, they know enough to DIY the entire job themselves if they go slow, so that's one of the reasons that self GCing can turn a 3 month job into a 3 year job. If you are on a budget, it can be the ONLY way that you can have high quality materials installed in a craftsmanlike way. You just have to get used to living in a construction zone. Believe me, that's not easy to do and it puts stress into even the most rock solid relationships. But, it can be done.

I just completed my kitchen acting as GC. Fortunately, I have a family member that is a finish carpenter. With that said, I'll ask a few questions. Can you buy the cabinets direct from the Brookhaven dealer? Is there structural changes to your kitchen or plumbing/electrical work that will require building permits? If so, you may need contractors with licenses to do the work.

If this is more of a straight forward project, I highly recommend hiring a kitchen designer to layout the kitchen and tell you exactly what you need to order and how it should all be installed. Not ordering the right size or a wrong filler strip here and there can throw the whole project off.

Thank you to all of you for your honesty. I think my husband and BILs can handle the job, but I am not at all a patient person. So what I am going to do is get the price if we were to only purchase cabinets from them and price around for a GC that would be less expensive, I have one person in mind to call. I need to look on this site more to see if there is an information sheet as to the order that things get done. My husband can install the floors and take part in alot of the work, hopefully that will save us money. At this point I don't feel like we will ever get to do it since I don't want to take out a loan.

it's wishful thinking to go hunting for a tip sheet. The number of variables increases exponentially every time you open a new subtopic. Either you have the patience and they have some skill, or the answer is that you will be more stressed than planned.

I've seen more horror stories on this board about GCs than I can recount. Yet I don't recall any complaints from those who have served as their own GC. If you have the time, or can take some time off, I say do it.

Hiring a GC is no panacea. Most states have few, and many have no requirements or testing when issuing licenses to General Contractors. Fill out a form, buy insurance, pay a fee and anyone can be one. There is no guarantee that things will go well, no guarantee that the subs he hires will perform quality work. He's probably going to hire the cheapest trades he can get, use the materials that he can obtain for less, cut as many corners as he can to keep his profits high as possible. On top of that he may try to convince you that permits aren't needed. Keep in mind that those permits protect you.

Sounds like you have trustworthy people who care about your family who can help you with electrical and plumbing and even have experience hanging cabinets. You're already ahead of the game. If anything is beyond their scope find competent journeymen for those jobs. Ask on this board for local referrals, or join Angie's List and look for individual trades with lots and lots of great reports. The information supplied there are more than grades, they are written reports by people in your area regarding of the scope of work done, the type of experience they had, and usually what they paid and how recently.

Whether you manage the job yourself or hire a GC, you still should have an idea how each job should be completed, the materials that should be used and how. Information on every aspect of remodeling is available online. Don't take shortcuts, don't substitute materials, and follow the directions. As an example, with flooring you may need underlayment. The manufacturer of your flooring of choice will have specifications for the type of underlayment. The underlayment manufacturer will have specific instructions about how their product should be installed and with what type of fasteners and how close together. Follow their instructions. I have heard so many stories about GCs using drywall screws for anything and everything including installing underlayment! No one is going to care as much as you that the job is done right.

No matter who is doing the work get the permits, get the inspections. THAT is how you will know the job was done right or at least to minimum code.

"Hiring a GC is no panacea. "

correct - but wading into the pool without knowing how to swim or at least float will get you into as much or even more trouble.

If you hired a GC, you'll at least have an insurance co. and a business' assets to go after if things go sideways. Though, that's no cakewalk either.

dermnp, I salute you for doing this without taking out a loan. We did the same, and it might take a bit longer than average since finding good deals is a longer process (it just takes time to accumulate the items and materials necessary), but overall we'd do it again in a heartbeat.

"I've seen more horror stories on this board about GCs than I can recount. Yet I don't recall any complaints from those who have served as their own GC."

Athomesewing is really right. If you have tradespeople in the family who can serve as advisors, I think you will come out just fine. If nothing else, they will be invaluable when it comes to tracking down all the subcontractors that become necessary during the job. (Example: you open the walls up and suddenly discover you need an electrician who's got experience removing live knob-and-tube wiring -- your family members will be in a good position to advise, based on jobs they've done with other workers.)

We were lucky and had a very good friend who's a finish carpenter, and he got us in touch with excellent electricians, plumbers, etc, with whom he'd had good working experiences on other projects. Plus, he was the one to go to when we had questions about the order of things, etc.

Get as many of the materials as you can purchased and lined up in advance! Sinks, appliances, flooring, etc. Use your garage, your dining room or your basement for storage.

It WILL take tons of research on your part, but I find that part to be invigorating -- and that's what forums like this one, and the many that cater to remodelers, are for.

What will try your patience are subs missing deadlines, not showing up to work, or using the incorrect materials. All of these things can happen with the best of workers; it doesn't have to be incompetence or malice that makes you crazy. ;-)

Also to be endured will be the delays when materials get back-ordered, turn out to be the wrong thing, or you decide something just isn't working for you aesthetically and it delays the entire project 3 weeks to change it.

Courage!

DH and I backed into being GCs on our last job, when the paid-for construction manager turned out to be a total incompetent. We picked up the pieces knowing nothing about construction, quite a lot about organization and dragged the job to the finish line, albeit months after we'd originally planned to close it out. Having had to learn so much quickly and reactively, I'd never voluntarily GC a project again.

One thing in your post that raises a flag in my mind is your brothers-in-law who are "willing to help". Is this full time, Monday through Friday, 8AM to 4PM willing to help? Or 'some evenings, some weekends, not on my kid's birthday, and when I'm not otherwise engaged in paying work' willing to help (unless you're paying them too)? Are they licensed and qualified to pull plumbing and/or electrical permits, if that's required in your jurisdiction?

I just want to ditto davidro, being, as it happens, 3 weeks into my own semi-DIY renovation. Everything affects everything else, and stuff will come up that you hadn't expected. You can make a nice plan on paper but reality will always bite back.

If they can devote enough time to it, and if they really do have enough skills, tools, and project experience between them, there's a lot to be said for having the husband and BsinL do the work: it will be more congenial, and the incentives are better-aligned in terms of their doing a really good job. There will be family expertise in place when things need fixing. But you will have to let go in terms of timing: the project will take as long as it takes.

OTOH, as this thread is making clear, a good KD and GC earn their pay: design that will be less likely to cause trouble, management of work flow and coordination of jobs. A lot of renovation is logistics: getting stuff in and out, finishing the plumbing without six trips to the store for additional thingamabobs, figuring out how to integrate the wire-pulling with the plumbing with reframing the wall. If I wanted optimum speed, I'd hire pros.

We GC'd our own kitchen reno and it went beautifully. None of ours was DIY, all subtrades were pros, and we were without a kitchen for less than a month.

A lot of excellent advice above. We found the keys to success were:

1) Personal recommendations for all the trades. And by that I mean we'd either had personal prior experience with them, or we knew people who had. I don't mean that we called their supplied references, I mean they were referenced from people *we* already knew. If you can't do that re. being new to an area, or other reasons, I would reconsider being your own GC.

2) A lot of pre-planning. We didn't rush into the reno, we planned it in some detail over the course of 6-8 months. We had all the supplies (tile, lighting, sinks, faucets, etc ordered and delivered in advance, and the appliances ordered and paid for with delivery scheduled in advance). We planned the timeline in detail as well which leads to the next point:

3) Once you've started, stick to your schedule RELIGIOUSLY! When you're dealing with many subtrades (in our case there were the electricians, tiler, cabinet maker, gas fitter, quartz fabricator/installer, disposal bin firm, and then contractors who did cab tear-out, plumbing, ductwork for the range, drywalling, appliance install, painting, and a bunch of other things) you have to manage the timeline very carefully. None of these guys are going to care if your project gets delayed for some unrelated reason and you want them to come a few days later at the last minute ... they have jobs lined up for other customers that they need to honor. So if you do NOTHING else, ensure that you have every single thing planned and ready for each trade when they arrive. Because they need to get in and out of your job on time or your are screwed (and by screwed I mean potentially without a kitchen for months, and you can't know how painful that is until you've been without one for even a week or so, it's horrible).

4) As mentioned above, make sure you can have someone home at all times. There are always little things that come up (do you want the cab handle at the top or the bottom, do you want the faucet this way or that, light here or there a few inches, etc.) We had the flexibility to work from home when needed (main contractors, tiler, and cabinet and counter installers), but other work we had done evenings and weekend (electrician, gas fitter, etc.).

5) Check for any issues regularly, and before you let the trade go for the day. Keep detailed lists of what you want, and check each item at end of each day and before you let the trade go. E.g., if the item is "prep faucet installed", you check that it's installed the way you want it, facing the right way, the spray hose pulls out properly, it doesn't leak, etc., before you cross it off your list ... but if there are any issues you can either get it fixed right away before paying, if it's at the end of a job, or put it on your list for next day to have fixed if that same trade is back).

So bottom line, if you can be there during the job and more importantly if you are organized enough to plan, plan, and plan some more, you can get a fabulous job done and save a boatload in the process. Don't be scared of doing it yourself if you have the time to plan and prepare. Good luck to you!

antss... "at least have an insurance co. and a business' assets to go after"

The GC's policy likely is an under-insured general liability policy, protecting him from specific risks. That policy does not cover poor workmanship -- negligence if you are lucky. Not only that, there are statutory time limits for claims. Often the crap work they may have hid under the lipstick won't be problematic for a year or more. If you sue, his insurance company will probably try to say that they are not liable because his sub-contractors did the work. Prove negligence or quit bothering them. Good luck collecting from your end, your attorney will be well paid though.

As for "business assets" good luck with that. There'll be court costs and all associated to even try. Enforcing the judgment and collecting on it is a whole other matter. Besides what are you planning to do with a toolbox, a table saw and an old pickup truck? Oh wait, you can't get that either, the Court cannot take away tools involved in his livelihood. There are several here with tales told of going the court route, the months and months of grief and outcomes that were less than good.

There ARE good contractors, but buyer beware. You are on your own finding one and it's completely up to you to make darned sure you did. If you don't want to be your own GC, then don't be your own lawyer or architect either. Get someone who can write up a concise all-inclusive building contract to do so for you, including all the specifics of your plan, materials to be used, how change orders will be handled, payment schedules, etc.

I didn't read through all of the posts above. That being said, I would say no you are not crazy at all to consider it and may very well be able to get exactly what you Want, done well, and save money, by being your own GC. Up front though, I do think it is imperative to do a lot of reading and research on your own, and I do think it is very important to have a flexible job where you can take leave (in most cases) at short notice to be onsite to supervise and help out as necessary. I think many people are terrifed of doing any work themselves on their own homes. My husband and I have saved tons of money (and gotten great work done) by doing research and doing a lot of things DIY. And DH and I both have professional careers and young kids that require a lot of time.

dermnp since you have provided little information I'll bet that alone is a sign, a piece of evidence, an indication. Post your layout and start dealing with feedback. After that, people will know what to advise on practical matters.

davidrol, curious as to what you are saying? A sign? I have posted my layout in the past and received very valuable feedback and made a few changes with the feedback. This is a remodel that we aren't rushing in to. We do not want to take out any loans and are saving, so it is not happening right away. We are currently updating our great room since it was a less expensive remodel but still have money aside for the kitchen and trying to come up with a workable budget.

taggie, what great info, thank you! I read your post to my DH and it made such sense. Did you get most of your information from here as to what to have on your checklist for every contractor? Though one of my brother in laws used to work with a contractor many years ago so he would know all this.

zeebee, my brother in laws would be on the weekends only, so we have to take that into account when planning. My DH will take time off from work to do work on the kitchen during the week.

colin3, thank you for your perspective, you are right about the timing and the little things that we may not have on hand. Though my brother in law has tools and has even made his own cabinets in the past for his kitchen.

circuspeanut (love that name), at home sewing, and jenny from the block, and anyone I missed, thank you for the encouragement. I love to do research and I am a planner, so I think we can do this.