PB2 wrote:
Our family is in the process of buying our first house and wanted to
ask a few questions about doing renovations. This is the first time
we've owned a house, so we know nothing about renovations - who to
hire, how to do them, how to plan timing, etc. - so we wanted to ask
a few questions on this group regarding it.

The house is in fairly good shape - it's 25 years old and has been
reasonably well maintained. We don't anticipate having to do any major
structural changes. What we do want to do is 1) renovate the kitchen
2) renovate two bathrooms 3) replace wallpaper with paint throughout
the house and 4) refinish the hardwood floors. We'd like to do all
this before we move in. This is a 2500 sq ft 3BR house in the suburbs
of Boston.

A few questions that I'd love to pose to the group:

1) I know there are general contractors and contractors. What are the
advantages/disadvantages of choosing one over the other, given the
amount of work we need done? We don't have any experience doing home
repair work, we'd like to do the work done quickly so we're not paying
both rent/mortgage simultaneously, and we'd like the work to be high
quality. The data points I have indicate we'd be better off with a GC,
but I don't have a sense for the premium that involves.

2) When should I be doing when to expedite this? We just agreed on a
price and the inspection will be early next week. The closing is
planned for 11/12. Should I ask if I can get contractors in before
closing to get estimates? Is that reasonable to ask from a seller? Any
other recommendations for what I can do to get the work done as
quickly as possible?

There is no reasonable expectation that your house will be finished anytime
soon. Further, there's nothing that says you can't move in and live around
whatever modifications are in progress.

Getting remodeling done is not like getting a haircut - there is significant
lead-in time since jobs are often scheduled weeks, if not months, in
advance. Then there are unforseen items. For example, your floor guy may
have to slip his efforts to his next available slot (maybe six weeks later)
because your wall guy hasn't finished his portion of the job. The wall guy
isn't done because stripping the wallpaper revealed some electrical problems
and the electrician couldn't come for almost a week, etc....

Then, too, there's Thanksgiving, Christmas, bowl games, and the general
recovery from all that...

Also, there's nothing worse than getting all this done - to the tune of many
tens of thousands of dollars - moving in, and discovering six months later
that there is some ghastly flaw in the building that was undiscovered by the
inspector (i.e., orginally built over a graveyard, city has been planning
condemnation for several years in order to build a pocket-park, neighbor
does unspeakable things, involving screaming, after dark, every Monday
morning a toxic cloud of sewer gas backs up on the whole neighborhood,
etc.).

I'd just move in and attack the projects at leisure.