I served as my own contractor for my kitchen remodel. DH and I did our own demolition (just taking down old cabinets, no walls changed); I painted the walls. If I remember correctly (it's been 5 years) the order was like this:

- get a building permit from the city
- remove old cabinets
- electrician to update wiring as needed
- electrician scheduled inspection
- carpenter (a friend) to repair drywall and cut a hole in the outside wall for the range vent
- I painted the walls
- flooring guy put in new tile
- cabinet maker installed new cabinets
- electrician came back to wire undercabinet lights and DW
- quartz counter installed (through cabinet maker)
- plumber (another friend) to install faucet and disposal

I no doubt saved some money doing it this way, but it did cost time. Since things had to be done in a certain order, I needed to allow plenty of time between steps, to make sure each sub was done before the next one was ready. I also had to stay on top of everyone's schedule, and keep in contact with each participant, which took time. One also needs to be very clear about who is responsible for what, and don't assume anything!

The value of one neck to choke when there is a problem can not be overstated enough. Being your own GC seems great until the finger pointing starts and you’re expected to solve it. With your money. Because you are the GC first and that is your job. You are only secondarily a customer if you hire all of the trades directly. All of the total job responsibility is yours.

Did the contractor tell you that you had to vacate while he did the kitchen?

Realistically the kitchen is going to take at least 3 - 4 weeks so you would be without a kitchen for a certain amount of time.

But why does he care if you crash in your bedroom at night and leave during the day?

Generally high rise apartments are trickier in terms of living with construction since there is nowhere to escape and generally not even excess space to set up a bare bones kitchen but if only one room (the kitchen) is being remodeled, you would still have a bedroom I assume.

I am vacating my unit for the duration as it's a gut remodel including removal of the asbestos popcorn ceiling. I have two bathrooms so theoretically I could have stayed after ceiling was taken down by crashing in my bedroom but given the scope of the project, it made no sense and would lengthen the amount of time since if I am gone they can do the plumbing all at once instead of leaving one bathroom functional.

Yes indeed it is difficult.

I am working with a well connected designer. Three contractors came up approximately two weeks ago. Only one has submitted a bid. My designer said the second probably would be she thinks it will be higher than the one that was submitted and the third completely disappeared. The one who submitted the bid did renovations for my building's lobby so at least I know it isn't a complete shot in the dark so to speak since there were just the usual minor hiccups along the way.

Luckily I found a woman who uses her unit in my building as essentially a pied a Terre and I am renting her spare bedroom so I will only have to move a few floors downstairs so I am going to be pretty much onsite as needed.

I got a bid from Traemand for $25k, which was absolutely not in line with my budget (in fact, it more than doubles my budget). :( I'll have them do the cabinets, but use a plumber to install a new gas line (and faucet + disposal when time is right) and the great electrician I have can do lights, DW, etc. For demo, laying down plywood before counters, drywall repair, backsplash install, install vent hood, new door, new window, etc., I'm using a contractor I know and who does excellent work (he owns a very well-reputed GC company, but he'll do this as a side gig). I'll do all the insulating/priming/painting. Floors (done by a local flooring co.) will go in second to last, then appliances will go in last.

At least -- that's the pretty picture I've made in my head about how all this will go. We'll see how that plays out against reality <sigh>.

Recipe for disaster. Way more than 25K worth of work there.

Since mine was a gut job, my contractor's subs were still there so basically they just moved to work in another room while Traemand was doing their thing. You can get an estimate from Traemand without any obligation, even before you buy your cabinets - Ikea sends them your kitchen drawings and in a few days they tell you how much to install. They don't calculate by linear feet - they look at how many base and uppers you have and the thing that drives up the installation price are the drawers. They cost more to assemble and install than cabinets. They put on any Ikea hardware for free and charge $7 a knob/pull if it's not Ikea (needless to say I went with Ikea!) I had an island (an L really) and got charged an extra $100 to secure it to the floor. My electrician had to run the wires for under cabinet lighting before Traemand came in and then he has to come back to finish connecting the wiring, otherwise your under cabinet wires show. If you buy a stock/laminate countertop from Ikea, Traemand will install it, otherwise Ikea contracts out with a stone yard to do that (I actually used Home Depot and just arranged for them to come template the day after Traemand). Contractor installs appliances last and plumber does dishwasher and line to fridge for icemaker/water filter. Yes, Traemand will do all toekicks and filler, although my contractor needed to remove the toekicks for the floors to be refinished, but I have hardwood. Hope this helps - I just had everything done a month ago and still am in the process of finishing so it's all fresh in my head.

After going round and round with this, I think I am going to get a GC and have them do it all. I wasn't that impressed by the Traemand guy who did the measurements and "design" (which Houzz had already done/with for me), and I just don't want the hassle of trying to get different teams of people to work together on this. The recommended GC comes tomorrow for us to meet and him to give us an estimate, so we'll see what he says. I guess if he wants to charge a ton for the cabinet install, I'll consider Traemond.

Or close to 2 grand an hour? :o

When we did IKEA kitchen in San Diego about 5 years ago, contractor charged $100 per cabinet to build and install (his company had an IKEA specialty). Guys were superfast and able to do all kinds of modifications. A year and a half ago in North Carolina, we did another IKEA kitchen but contractor did not have much experience with IKEA so we (meaning my husband) built the cabinets, the contractor installed them and we put in the doors/drawers (easy). Contractor installed the pulls. Everything ended up relatively fine (other issues with contractor) but it's nice to have someone with good experience with the product.. It does nothing good for your stress levels to see the guys scratching their heads about what to do.