My husband and I did a full gut job and renovation starting in 2019 which started with us purchasing a small 1000 sq ft home / lot that we built on. We kept a wall or two and demolished the rest. Included digging out a basement and building a much bigger home in its place. We hired a design company who essentially subs out all of the trades. I think that is quite common in this field.

A few things I would tell myself if I were to go through this process again :

1. tack on an extra 15-20% on top of your total cost for unforeseen items
2. pick out finishes and have a good sense of what you want before you start the contracting process so that you don’t have inaccurate allowances/contract costs
3. tack on an extra 4-6 months on build time depending on the extent of the renovation
4. depending on the size and scope of the project, be prepared to be your own project manager. As much as your design firm or main general contractor should be responsible for this, no one will do it as well as you.
5. if you can afford it, do it all at once. In the end, it will end up costing less because much of the labor costs will be a bit less if they do it all at the same time versus doing it a little at a time.

All that said, a custom built home to your own specifications is really awesome. Moreover, it’s very hard to find non speck homes in the DC area so our house automatically gained 20-30-% (if not more) i. Equity if we were to sell it. We also wouldn’t have been able to afford our home if we were able to buy it after it was complete.

It is a very stressful experience. Things will go wrong. You will be over budget and over the time estimates they give you, etc. but if you are prepared for these things ahead of time, take the time to find a contractor/build company who you like and whose references are solid.

Finally, I would highly highly recommend against living in the house with renovations. It is not only stressful, but the amount of dust/messiness that gets created from construction is a bit insane. We moved in towards the tail end of our house being done and it was a miserable three months. If you can afford to live somewhere else, do it. It will be well worth it!

Good luck. If you have any other questions, feel free to PM me.