Have you ever undertaken a project of this nature? If you are in contact with highly reommended contractors who you feel comfortable working with why would you not have them handle the project from start to finish? Are you not able to discuss the level of quality you expect with the contracors you are working with? Why are there allowances? Have you taken the time to make material/finish/fixture/flooring/appliance selections?

I am an interior designer, so yes, I have years of experience w/ new construction & remodel. The contractors we are considering are excellent. I have my own accounts w/ cabinets, flooring, plumbing, etc; Why would I pay the contractor's markup on products I get @ trade prices?Yes, every fixture, cabinet, flooring, etc are selected, some already purchased.

Yes - houseaholic, it sounds like you have the experience to manage the processes and the connections in the industry to source the materials and craftspeople. You could probably eliminate the contractor other than on a consulting basis for the building assembly too. Are you a member of a local home builders association?

I am not a member of HBA; the contractor that we are leaning towards would be available on a piecemeal basis, to oversee such things as plumbing & electrical inspections as mentioned by S. Thomas Kutch. I hope to get a reply from some homeowners who unertook such a project: does traditional progress pymts work as they do when a bank is involved? Is there a difference incontractor responsibility after the completion? (the state's ROC couldnot tell us, but we will have our contract drawn up by an attorney if we proceed this way).

House, as designer, former GC and home owner in the midst of a whole house remodel, I can tell you your idea can be done......we're doing exactly the same thing in our project. I pulled the construction permit as the home owner. I found an electrical contractor, plumbing and mechanical contractor who were willing to pull the applicable permits and are inspecting my work ( I have hands on experience running electrical, plumbing and mechanical) and are there for the inspections by the code enforcement. The electrical contractor will be finalizing the panel and tying in the service and the mechanical contractor will be setting the equipment and tying in the duct work to the plenum. The contracts were written up with very defined scopes of work and that their responsibilities extended only for the work they personally did.

But remember in my earlier post I said "if you are in no hurry", trust me time is precious and if your and your husband have full time jobs, your project progress will be limited to late nights, days off and weekends. Expect the unexpected You can only maintain such an intense effort for so long, before you're burned out mentally or physically. There will be times one or both of you are sick, have a situation at work that requires extra effort or invariably that some supplier delivers the wrong material, fixture or finish and your progress is delayed until the correct item is delivered. Stuff happens. Not to mention that there are those unsavory characters out there who look for easy pickings.....and a project site where work crews are not there everyday is a prime picking so to say. Heck, even active sites are not safe today. My last CA job for bank draws was hit one night........43 units had copper wiring cut out and the HVAC coils ripped out..........5 nights later they came back and got the other 37 units.

Then there is the stuff from out of the blue........we were a year into our remodel, when my health took a definitive turn for the worse. Luckily, our project schedule incorporated the fact that we were living here during the remodel and the house had to remain functional when everything came to a grinding halt. That was 5 years ago.

We programmed our project the way we did for 2 reasons. 1.) I'm very demanding when it comes to quality work and figured the best way to insure the quality of the work was to do it myself. 2.) We didn't want to finance the project, we planned on paying as we went and my salary was that resource.........when my health turned, I was forced to retire. For 5 years we have lived in a house with no drywall except around the bathroom, the floor is plywood subflooring except the bathroom (tile) and while it doesn't bother me that much, my wife has been a trooper but I can tell you, she's reached her limit.

Now that we've settled with the SSDI, the project will resume with the contractors completing the design under my watchful supervision.

My point of this long posting, is simply this. we can plan everything out, we can cover all the bases and still something can come along and throw a monkey wrench in the works........contingencies are a must in any project.

Oh my goodness- what an ordeal!! You will be so glad to finish the project & enjoy your home! You addressed the issue of start & stop of responsibility- I'd like to learn more about how you defined this? Thank you sincerely!

It's really pretty simple. Your scopes of work should identify the work the contractors will do and the work that you will do and that would be the demarcation of responsibility and liability. For instance, the scope of work for the framer might be as follows:

CONTRACTOR WORK: The framing contractor (name of company or contractor) shall provide all materials, labor and equipment required to erect the super structure of the house as indicated in the record set of construction documents. The Contractor shall coordinate and interface with all applicable trades as required for a complete and coordinated installation.

OWNER WORK: The Owner (name) will not supply materials or preform any work contained in the scope of the Contractor's work.

SCOPE OF WARRANTY AND GUARANTEE: Only work and materials provided by the Contractor shall be identified and covered by the Contractor's Bond and warranty.

This is very basic, but you can see where it's going. This is why it's important that you have a thorough and detailed set of plans. If it's not in the drawings or the specs then it has to be spelled out in the scope of work what is to be provided .......... this is why I am a firm believer that even with residential jobs that the cost of having a fully detailed set of drawings and short specs are an absolute when it comes to contracting out the work........what ever portion that is. Yes it cost more up front, but it heads off problems during the construction or who does what or what was expected. Delays are costly, changes are costly, miscommunications are costly...............they're called Change Orders and can be and usually are kept to a minimum when the design documents communicate clearly and concisely what the Owner wants and expects.