So we did a bathroom remodel about 5 or 6 years ago. The designer came up with a couple of really great ideas (well worth the $600 or so we paid him) that enlarged the bathroom, gave us a great walk-in closet, big shower, all kinds of stuff we wanted. I hired a contractor, they did mostly what we wanted... but screwed a few things up that quite frankly bug me to this day. The heated floor stops about 4-5" from the cabinet kick panels. That means every morning in the winter I get cold toes while I shave. It's barbaric, I tell ya. But the master bath is gorgeous and very few people would find any fault whatsoever. Cost us way more than I had planned... about $40K when we were all done.
My wife did the main bath on her own. Nice marble tile, new marble countertops, marble mosaic tile floor, super nice job. We probably spent a couple grand on it, I didn't keep track at all. I did some of the work, it took a while but it wasn't bad.
Then there's the kitchen. Too big a job to do on my own. Called in the same designer we'd used for the master bath. Total gut, pull down the ceiling, remove a wall, build a new walk-in pantry, all custom cabinetry, 10' long island with a marble slab top, 36" cooktop, prep sink, secret hidden liquor cabinet with a child-proof magnetic latch, the works. I called half a dozen contractors. A month and a half later I managed to get ONE of them to actually cough up an estimate, for $90K which seemed to me to be the "We really don't want this job" rate. By chance we met a project manager. We acted as our own general contractor, she found us some subs and supervised the work -- as did we, since I work from home full time anyway. She brought a lot of good ideas, contacts, and experience to the table for a reasonable fee. We did the whole thing, exactly the way we wanted it with zero compromises, for about $55K. And with better materials and fixtures than the $90K contractor was going to use. That even included sanding and refinishing the entire ground floor worth of hardwood flooring, and it looks amazing. You don't get your money back out of remodels, I don't think, but honestly I think we will from this kitchen.
So... I am sold on the idea of taking control of your own destiny here. Subcontractors are not hard to find, especially if you can find someone who is more familiar with the process. Our PM made sure they all had insurance, pulled permits, got inspections, etc... fired a couple who didn't perform up to snuff... generally was there to ride herd when we couldn't be there. We found a tile guy for the backsplash when her recommended guy turned out to be a pretentious ass. I did a few odds & ends, like installed the low voltage wiring for a little bit of planned under-cabinet LED lighting (which looks amazing, by the way). We went about 2 or 3 weeks past the original timeline, much better than the 3 months extra it took the GC to screw up our master bath. And we felt like we were completely in control of what was going on the whole time, since WE were the ones writing the checks to the subs (or paying cash to the drywall crew working nights).
