Thanks everybody! I'm feeling much better about this today; yesterday was a momentary panic is all. Good advice to sleep on it, CA. The middle guy comes highly recommended from my real estate agent, and he has good references. He is licensed and the contract states that he takes care of pulling all the permits, and it states that he uses licensed subcontractors (electrical and plumbing). This is a fairly old house (1939) and there are some mechanical issues that need to be addressed properly, and I just don't have the know-how to be my own GC.

He is sensitive to my cost situation and is working with me to reduce costs where possible. Things like tiling and painting I will do, since I've done that before. The cabinet maker is also aware of cost, and so we're going to discuss how we can reduce costs on the cabinets. My style is very minimal and modern, so I won't go for all those moldings and extra stuff on the cabinets. The cabinet guy also uses certified wood and does not use formaldehyde stuff, which is important to me (and I'm willing to spend there). The counters will be either a recycled glass terrazzo or recycled paper--still deciding on that, but they are less than stone and greener, too. I'm also looking forward to learning about framing and plumbing (I've done some). I work from home so I'll be here throughout the renovation and I really want to learn more about it to become more self-sufficient in these things.

Between all this and the appliances at the outlet, I think I'll save some off the original estimate (which also included a new hot water heater which I have already replaced since the old one went kaput a few weeks ago).

I find myself today with a bit of a GI problem. I think my little dorm fridge isn't cooling my paltry collection of food properly. Time for action.