Sure you can, why not?

I was/am the GC for my kitchen/bath remodel. It's hard work, and you need to be present as much as possible, plus you need to have everything on site for whatever phase you are working on at the moment. There is a lot of running around, checking references (still no guarantee from my experience), and lots of research....

BUT it has been worth it to get what I WANT!

To find people I asked friends, co-workers, folks at HD and Lowes, lumber supply, flooring stores, tile stores. Just keep asking, interviewing and checking references. Sometimes you have to trust your gut feeling on your subs.

I have a plumber, electrician and tile setter that are keepers. I also have a drywall guy that's a keeper. There are others that did some of the work, I paid them and bid them adios and would never, ever rehire again. It takes time and effort but I would do it again in a heart beat...

A friend used a well known GC and right now she is battling with him to get his idiots back in to fix the bath sink that literally fell off the wall! So you see, even with a GC you could still have lots of work and headaches.

Yes, you certainly can. Do you have a clearly thought out plan for your kitchen remodel? Do you know of any electrician, plumber etc that are highly qualified and reliable? Are you willing to go through the headaches if something goes wrong?

I did it myself and I have a terrible headache(not finished yet with project) The headache is from choosing colors, types , designs etc which I am not good at. I paid an electrician a couple of hundred dollars to move an outlet for my new fridge location only to move it back because I changed design.

Demolition was 2 days before Thanksgiving. Tomorrow, the cabinet installer comes and will be completed on Tuesday, December 4th. Plumber is coming in the afternoon on the 4th and if needed, finishing on the 5th.

i just finished mine and was the gc. it worked out good but iw as there every second as i work out of the house. but boy is it tiring and nervewracking. its almost not better to see how much people cut corners as it will drive you crazy

I'd ask myself if I was qualified to know when it was time to do what, or if I had enough knowledge to ask the good folks HERE intelligent questions about the same thing. You're probably just as qualified to hire a good electrician, plumber, fabricator/counter-top.

DonnaR/CA

Well I was GC for our remodel which in addition to the kitchen included floors throughout the house and a new floor to ceiling fireplace. Just like you we didnÂt make structural changes to the house. I feel like we had a great outcome (ok we arenÂt totally finished yet). No major problems. Everyone showed up on time and finished on time. I recommend Angie's List. I paid for a subscription and used it to look for or check out possible contractors. Also I do not work so I was able to do LOTS of footwork and be home to monitor everyone. I found the very best way to find great contractors is to ASK everyone you know. We found our flooring guys through friends and our handyman too (he did plumbing, electrical, and cabinet install for us with my husbands help). I had the hardest time with my countertops. I must have visited with everyplace in town. I got dozens of quotes but went with a business that had high Angie's List ratings AND who treated me well and seemed to want my business. My husband and I did as much work as we could to save money too. We are not THAT handy and we saved a fortune doing small things ourselves like demo, putting in light fixtures, and my husband did all the wiring for some new electronics. My background in remodeling-nothing more than an inflated sense of my own abilites.

Incoming minority opinion: it depends. It depends upon how knowledgeable you are about plumbing and electrical issues, how extensive the remodel is, and how much legwork you want to do to find just the right outlets/switches/plates, lighting... How closely are you willing to spec the job and how much will you leave to the pros? Are you aware of the cost implications of your decisions? Can you coordinate the work from different subcontractors so they don't get in each others way and get their work done in a timely fashion? (This can have a huge effect on the time for the remodel.) Sometimes there are many more options than you might think. I don't know if this is good or bad, but some expertise (via GC or KD) is useful.

We GCd a relatively modest kitchen and bath remodel a few years ago. In the kitchen we replaced a U-shape with an L plus an island, and put wood floors over vinyl. No walls taken out, no new plumbing and only one new electrical outlet. The baths were similarly simple with only a small amount of new plumbing and no new electrical. The guys did just what we asked them to do, and no more.

It was reasonably successful, but there were some problems. For example, a couple of weeks after completion we had a water leak. Bad news for wood floors. The plumber blamed the cabinet guy (long but relevant story) and the cabinet guy blamed the plumber. In the end, nobody would take responsibility. Rather than go to court, we ate it. In retrospect, if we had been smarter (e.g. mined gardenweb) the end product would have been nicer. But it was still OK.

We currently have a GC to take responsibility and a KD to oversee the details of this extensive and complex remodel. Yes, it costs more, but it is easy to overlook seemingly little things that become bigger later. Sometimes I simply don't recognize when I should ask a question. These guys do make mistakes and spec down, given the chance.

So it really does depend on the project scope; your knowledge; how closely you want to spec the job; how much material you want the contractor to supply; your daily availability; your willingness to stand over the workers' shoulders and immediately confront something that does not appear kosher; and your patience.

Wait until after the job is completed to try to quit your bad habits. You may even pick up a few new ones during the process.

I just finished doing something very similar. I worked with a local cabinet maker who helped me lay out the kitchen,then built the cabinets and worked with a counter (granite)fabricator (all one fixed price) I then hired a contractor to do the plumbing, electric, wall, windows,floor,painting. (all one fixed price) I got my appliances the floor, the fixtures and arranged for them to be deliverd.

I had to to do a bit of negotiating between the cabinet co and the contractor, but it all worked out great.

I got the specs for the appliances and fixtures and gave them to everyone early on. I gave the cabinet guys/fabricator plans to the contractor and the conctractors work plan to the cabinet guys. I did not have the contractor start the demo until the cabinet guy was finished and could give me an estimated date for install. From demo to complete finish was five weeks and 2 days. I stayed excactly on budget and did not use any of my contigency funds.

One caveat -- the cabinet co was a family company with a great reputation and the contractor was somebody I had used before and is used by everyone in the neighborhood so I trusted everyone to work out conflcts.

Good luck

I would never hire a GC - I'd rather spend the money on better supplies and materials, but of course that is easy for me to say as we are very handy, espcially my husband. Everything DIY takes 10 times as long, but you have some great story's to share. We didn't save any money, but got nicer cabinets and other stuff. We DIY'ed our kitchen, windows, some plumbing projects and electrical, among other things. The only thing we will not do is the second story, as we'll get some help for the design, roof, and outside and probably do the inside ourselves. I don't want someone picking out what goes in my house and going on the cheap so there is more money in their pocket. I want to know everything down to the last screw.

It takes a lot of time, but in the end time worth spending to get what you want.

I am doing my own kitchen and have not seen the need for a GC. I have to admit that I am pretty handy and able to do a great deal of the work myself. It helps if you don't put yourself on too tight of a deadline. I am also flexible and able to devote a great deal of time to the project. In my case I will have done all demolition, drywalling, plumbing, electrical, tile and wood flooring myself. The cabinet design was a collaborative effort done with the assistance of the cabinet company and they installed. Originally my plan was to buy from Lowe's and do my own install. We found a company that did the whole job for about the same price as just buying the cabs. The granite countertops I am leaving to a professional but I will probably do the tile backsplash. Even if you don't do most the work yourself if you have organizational skills, time and patience you should be able to handle the job.

I'm part way through a "semi-DIY" kitchen. After a quote or two from GC's, (YIKES!!!)I initially planned to GC the whole thing myself. I interviewed several plumbers and electricians, and was sort of happy with what I found, but still not thrilled. A client of mine gave me the name of a GC who she loved, and I called him: it was a GREAT solution: unlike a lot of GC's, he was willing to come in and just do PART of the job. Basically, my friends and I demo'ed the cabinets/floors. Then the GC and a couple of his guys took a week off a bigger job (the big job knew ahead of time that he was committed to me for a week) and they tore out the soffits, did the electrical and plumbing, drywall, texturing- basically the stuff I couldn't deal with alone. I painted, replaced a window, and my dad and I are SLOWLY getting cabinets done (yeah, some timing issues.....we're very behind...) I found my own granite slabs and a fabricator, and that'll be done as soon as the cabs are in, then I'll do laminate flooring myself, and the GC will come back to spend a day installing appliances and hood and plumbing the sink if I want him too. I'll learn a little tiling to do the backsplash.

I dont know that a lot of GC's are willing to take on part of a job like this, but it is working out GREAT for me. I was quoted about $30-35K for the whole job to be done by one GC- this did NOT include appliances. The electrician and plumber that I found would have been $2900. My "partial GC" was $6320, but that was for soffit demo (an HUGE mess and the whole ceiling was replaced) plumbing (including bringing in a new gas line form the meter), electrical, drywall, installation of a new roofjack, installation of appliances. It was very worth it.

Sorry- in reference to the above post the $30-35K quote did not include appliances OR *cabinetry*, but did include installation of whatever I picked.

Well, I HVAE done a lot of research, but I definitely do not feel qualified to trouble shoot, pick up slack, coordinate timing, buy materials, etc. I think the extra expense of the GC would be worth it to us, but I have to find someone who is willing to do a smallish job, like Muscat's. I have been having bad luck finding someone - of the five that came highly recommended, one moved out of state, one is unavailable due to his wife being in the hospital, one just left town because of a death in the family, one wanted 9K JUST for demolition and cabinet install - nothing else, and one, the guy who lovingly did my brother's kitchen and bathroom, will not work in the city, only in the suburbs.
All my other friends who have had work done, well, from the looks of it, i wouldn't hire their contractors!
i am going to go back to the drawing board.

LC