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.

When we bought our home, we had just moved to a new state and knew no one. Our house was a fixer and we DIY'd most of it ourselves, but when it came time to do the master bath, we opted to hire a contractor. We also had tough time finding someone and as a last resort decided to contract the job ourselves. Problem was, we were just as lost about how to find good people as we were when looking for a contractor. During a conversation with a tile salesman, I asked if they by any chance had some tilers they could refer to me. They did and that's what got the ball rolling for us. A few days later while I was interviewing the tiler (whom the salesman said was one of the busier ones) I casually asked if he knew of a good plumber. He gave me the name of a guy he worked with regularly who was a master plumber. So a few days later, that plumber came to quote the job and during our conversation, I asked him if he knew of a good carpenter. Same thing, he referred me to a guy he's worked with for years. The carpenter ended up being a licensed contractor with a small but busy business and eventually we hired him as a contractor to do our bathroom remodel. Before we did though, we had him do a couple of other smaller things to sort of "test the waters" and see what his work looked like. He's really good at what he does and now, the only one we call when we need something. I was asking these guys for referrals because I didn't know anyone locally to ask and the people I was getting from places like Angie's list were not a good match, but as it turned out, they were a really helpful and dependable resource. I asked the salesman who the busiest tiler was because to me that meant he was good enough to be in demand and when someone is good at what they do, it usually means they have a good work ethic as well. Maybe you can try a similar approach.

My gut reaction is that unless you have one whole heck of a lot of experience building homes you're being, to use the expression, penny wise and pound foolish. Doubly so if you're planning on doing a lot of the work yourself. One thing a good GC brings to the table is a relationship with his subs. A good GC wants to keep his subs happy and a good sub wants to keep his GC happy. The former gets a better product and the latter gets another job. I've also seen a lot of well meaning homeowners who thought they could do a lot of the work themselves. In many cases inexperience actually ended up costing them more than if they had just hired a professional from the get go. I recall one guy who had started finishing his basement. He got a lot of the framing done until he ran into something he couldn't figure out. Then started on the electrical until in ran into problems, then started on the plumbing... There were so many mistakes it was mind boggling, from framing that left no place to secure drywall to doorways that were the wrong size (framed to the finished, not rough opening). No electrician who wanted to keep his license would have touched the homeowner's work without ripping out everything and starting from scratch. In the end I walked away.

The GC is more than a consultant and he's not going to share his subs with you. You'll be on your own to find someone in each trade and then explain to them what needs to be done and how you want it. The drop ceiling is going to need a carpenter, drywall guy and an electrician. Are you able to be around to organize all these trades so that each step of the process is finished before the next sub comes in? The appliances can be installed by the people you buy them from. For such a small job, you'll probably have trouble finding a contractor to take on the work. But in today's economy, maybe not! Instead, I'd check around for some of the Handyman/remodel businesses since this is right up their alley. We've used both..........it just depends on the size of the job.