Howard-
Mad. But here we are!
It's been a bit of a life raft for me if I'm honest. Quit shit highly toxic university job in May super demoralised and with nothing to go to and was about to find another comms/PR job I didn't want when our architects suggested this, which turned out to be a really good idea.
I have aches in places I didn't know were places and I'm permanently knackered, especially as this phase is pretty physical (we're going back to brick and joists). Riding my bike has basicallly gone out of the window. But I'm really enjoying it, particularly seeing tangible progress, sorting out 120 years of bodges, zero office politics and being my own boss. And my cardio might be shit but I've never been physically stronger.
The contractor/client relationship with the architects is a bit funny, but we're very much on the same page (e.g. met up with them last week and explained my proposed underfloor heating buildup and it was exactly how they'd do it) and they were friends before we appointed them which makes it a bit easier.
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Fox
This is why I'm self-building full time on our renovation: it's incredibly hard to find main contractors whose pricing isn't absolutely insane, and some of them are really taking the piss (not saying yours is, if they were you'd probably be looking at 200% over budget).
We did the maths and realised it would be a lot cheaper for me to not work and pay me a token wage (enough to live reasonably comfortably, but I don't cost much) to project manage, do as much as I can myself and procure everything. Our architects reckon we'll probably save a six-figure sum.