On 2006-10-01, Dan_Musicant wrote:

I'm wondering if it's reasonably practical to put off the
foundation, leveling and siding work and do the other stuff now.

No, I don't think so, for the same reasons as others have mentioned.
The foundation and leveling are the first order of business. Since
you will have to partially remove the siding to do the foundation,
residing should be done shortly thereafter.

Now an important question is whether the plaster on the interior of
the exterior walls should be retained or not. If it is generally in
good condition, I suggest simply patching it as necessary. In this
case, your access to the inside of the exterior walls is only while
residing, and so any plumbing/electrical/insulating work in those
walls should be done before residing.

If, on the other hand the interior plaster on the exterior walls is
generally in bad condition, and you want to replace it all (I suggest
blueboard and veneer plaster), then it will be simpler to do the work
in those walls from the inside. Then just go ahead and get the
foundation and exterior shell updated as one extended project, and do
the interior work as another extended project.

As to the question of living in the house while replumbing and
rerunning the electrical, it is possible to do without a huge amount
of trouble. The basic idea is that you'll be installing entirely new
electrical and plumbing systems, so you run the new systems parallel
to the old systems, and when the new systems are (almost) complete,
you cut over to them and stop using the old systems. Cutting over
should only take a couple days and be bearable. This won't really
work for the DWV, as the pipes are so big, but since you have multiple
bathrooms, the DWV replacement can be done in stages. As to the
electrical, it may also be convenient to do the work in stages, with
just one or two rooms shut off at a time.

Those are my thoughts, of course I'm in the middle of doing all this
right now. When I've finished I'm sure I'll be able to give a better
answer. :-) I elected to retain the interior plaster, it was in good
condition, so I'm presently insulating and resheathing the exterior
walls from the outside of the house. It's a slow process for one
person, right now I'm racing against the coming rains. So I'm quite
busy, sorry to have delayed in responding.

Cheers, Wayne