I always cook my chicken/turkey bones a second time after removing the meat and storing it away. I keep the first broth in the fridge in quart-sized freezer containers, but I only fill each half way because I want to mix the second stock into the first before I pack it for the freezer. People are always surprised to see what nice broth you can get from just the bones, skin and gristle. Sometimes I will add water to the bones again after draining them, and stir this around. If the water starts looking like chicken stock, I'll cook the bones again. When I'm finished with the bones, they are soft and will collapse to a sort of a paste when you pinch them between your fingertips. I smush this stuff and bury it in my garden. I have to do it when the dog isn't watching though, and set something on top of it for a few days. I love my crockpot, too! I've never looked into what it costs to run it. I also have one of those big electric roasters that I always cook my Thanksgiving turkey in (and later use it to simmer the bones for broth) and Dawn, if you want something that cooks up a huge amount, you need that! But it would be hard to carry to a fire, now that I think about it. And I do save bits and tads of things. I don't like mixing my meats together so I will usually put them in wide-mouthed tapered pint canning jars and label them as to whether they are poultry, beef or pork. Sometimes I will make up a "tv dinner" if we have maybe one serving left of something, and put it in the freezer for later. I collect the liquids from canned vegetables and bits and pieces of veggies like tomatoes, celery, asparagus and outer cabbage leaves, in a plastic coffee jug in the freezer. When it's full I thaw it out, add add whatever I think it needs more of. Usually this is chicken or beef, some broth, and maybe a jar of canned tomatoes. A chopped onion. Add a can of mixed veggies from the store or a part of a bag of frozen. Actually I prefer the canned as it has potatoes in it. Heat all this up, add enough cornstarch to give it a nice smooth consistency. DH has a sensitive stomach so I don't spice it up. Just salt and pepper. If I'm feeding kids I add a little sugar, unless there's lots of liquid from canned corn in that batch. Yum.

I’ve acted as GC on my last few renovation projects, one which involved three bathroom gut remodels and a brand new kitchen with all new appliances and cabinets, new hardwood floors, doors, and moving walls. Subs I had: (1) paint/general construction/drywall, (2) plumber, (3) tile, (4) floor guy. I did the bulk of this in about a month and a half, with just little aesthetic touch ups later. I saved both money and time. Time, because I found that GCs will schedule one thing after another, not wanting people to work around each other, but because I was on a really tight timeframe that my son and I wouldn’t have a place to live, I scheduled a lot of folks to work at the same time around each other. They grumbled a bit more, but I was there every day to smooth things over, help, and just be a charming friendly person who brought cookies and snacks :). That said, to echo a lot of what folks said, it’s important to (1) be there on site every day to catch things early that are not aesthetically what you’d like, before it becomes more difficult to fix later, (2) have great people skills to motivate folks and work through issues, (3) have great organizational and project management skills (4) make decisions quickly and easily (being willing to do your own research) (5) be efficient about ordering supplies and materials on your own, which really saves time and money. And maybe most importantly (6) have the energy to deal with this all — it takes a lot of energy. I was exhausted. The reason I undertook it is that some GCs I talked to gave me a 4 month estimate on the work, and I just didn’t have that kind of time. All the sub folks were referred by my broker, so they were really responsive and professional and above par. I’ve continued to use them on other renovation projects, and they’ve always been really responsive and great. I may be lucky, because I’ve heard of nightmare stories as well, but it’s just to say that if you get good referrals, I‘ve found it’s not always the case that you can’t get subs to show up or have leverage compared to a GC. In fact, on a current project I have, all my same subs agreed to take on the work for me, right away, when my GC couldn’t get his subs for weeks out. I respectfully don’t agree with the comment that if you can’t tell about running an electrical line you can’t be a GC. If you trust your subs to be good at what they do, they’ll guide you through everything and help you make the best decisions. That’s what they’re there for. I‘ve done several remodels now, and haven’t had any issues later on (I lived in that particular house for 5 years). Anyway, I know it’s been 6 years since this post, but since I always get value from older comments and advice, I thought I’d still share my own experiences for others with this same question.

Good luck finding a reputable contractor. We've lived in the same house for 26 years and in that time we've done many projects - new roof, new siding, a 1000 sq. addition, finished the basement, remodeled 3 bathrooms, added a screened in porch,installed a mahogany deck, a swimming pool, replaced brick walk with custom cut bluestone, remodeled the kitchen twice and had major landscaping done 3 times. We probably worked with 12 different general contractors and unfortunately only 2 of them would I ever work with again or refer to others. Even though we went through all the recommended steps in selecting our contractor calamities still happened - may of them directly caused by the GC trying to save time, money or appease one of his subs or another customer. You don't need to hear my horror stories I'm sure you've heard many. If you have the knowledge, the time and the fortitude to be your own GC then go for it. Just make sure you have all the insurance you need and an attorney to review all contracts. The last contractor we worked with was highly recommended by many people that I knew personally and whose work I had inspected. But he lost his foreman to an injury one week after my kitchen was demolished and everything went downhill rapidly after that. So even if you do everything right - there's still a good chance that things will go wrong.

I say go for it. There are a lot of nay sayers out there but if you do some research about "owner builders" you will find many people do this all the time with great success. You will have headaches, you will have stress, but its a trade off. There are plenty of good reliable subs out there that are willing to do the work. You will just need to research them. Best thing to do is have a written contract for the work. Will GC's get better pricing. Sure. Then they mark it up and you end up paying more than you may have paid yourself. I did a full gut remodel a couple years ago and found a great set of people I will continue to work with. Are they the cheapest? Probably not (plumber is for sure) but I felt the prices were reasonable and I got good work out of them. Go by word of mouth. Get on Nextdoor (the app) and ask your neighbors for recommendations on contractors. If you have time to do research and understand the basics, you can do a lot. If I can rewire my house by learning off youtube and pass a city inspection, anyone can.