Scope of Work

My brother-in-law's comment on my "Before" post brought to my attention that I haven't really discussed the scope of the renovation our contractor will be doing in the coming weeks. I'm exhausted from hacking back the miniature jungle in our backyard today, so I'll just do the quick-and-dirty list form.

• Remove the rotted front porch and rebuild with same footprint.
• Patch holes in lath and plaster walls. Where plaster has separated from the lath, plaster will be pulled down and replaced with sheetrock.  
• Do some "lead paint remediation" and prime all the walls out in white.
• Make a new attic access with pull-down ladder. Currently, the only way to get in the attic is to shimmy through a very small opening in the kitchen ceiling by climbing a ladder placed on top of a kitchen cabinet.
• Reinforce termite-damaged support structure in attic and crawl space.
• Pour additional concrete pads to support a sunken section of the foundation (under the bathroom).
• Remove rotted subfloor in bathroom and replace.
• Repair broken window panes.
• Demo rotted back porch. We are not replacing the porch in favor of a more open feeling in the backyard. Steps will be built down to the backyard exiting the laundry room.
• Repair electrical throughout the house.
• Repair plumbing (water and gas) throughout the house.
• Remove damaged water heater (and accompanying space-hogging shed) and replace with tankless model. 
• Repair damaged siding. 
• Run a gas line for the dryer and replace damaged duct line.
• Fix drainage problems around the property.
• Remove alarm and motion detector wiring installed by the paranoid former owner.

I'm probably missing something, but that's the bulk of it. The contractor is only doing what our lender forced us to let them do to get our loan (since the house wasn't eligible for conventional financing, we had to get a renovation loan, which requires work to address "health and safety" hazards be performed by a licensed contractor). For instance, the contractor won't be adding cabinets in the kitchen. Steve and I want to do a kitchen remodel ourselves later, so we'll be repairing the existing cabinets for temporary use. We may also re-arrange the bathroom at a later date, but for now the bowling alley configuration will stay.

Once the contractor is done, Steve and I will do things like refinishing the floors, putting color on the walls and repairing the picket fence. We want to do as much work ourselves as we possibly can because, frankly, we enjoy working together and for us owning a home is really as much about having a hobby that we work on together as having a roof over our heads.