Which task is worthwhile to do yourself?

Hello,

briefly about the initial situation:
My wife (28) and I (32) and our son (1) are building a single-family house with 240m² of living space this year in southern Bavaria.
We currently live about 100km away from the location and are average in terms of craftsmanship but basically "office workers" without much knowledge of how to install, for example, underfloor heating or similar.
After some acquaintances advised us against building with self-performance/self-management and given the poor situation regarding tradesmen (for builders), we are building turnkey with a general contractor.

We have found a company with a very good reputation in the region that also made the best offer pricewise.
However, the costs are quite steep at over 500k€ just for the house.
Included are, among other things:
- House with 36.5cm brick
- Wooden windows, balconies, wooden facade, etc.
- Heating, electrical, sanitary
- Floors: tiles (sanitary area, garage, etc.) and wooden floors (living rooms)
- 100m² paving of the outdoor area
- Painting, cleaning, etc.

We are now considering whether it might be worth extracting some services from the contract. Of course, we know that the general contractor will not deduct their costs 1:1, but better than nothing.

Now the question: Which tasks have you done yourselves that you say are feasible for (almost) anyone in good quality and time and also save a considerable amount?
We have already planned painting the windows + assembling the kitchen as self-performance.
Tiling, electrical work, heating, etc. I think is out of the question. You need too much knowledge to work efficiently here, and besides, you lose warranty if something goes wrong.

I was rather thinking of things like:
- Interior painting: With the size of the house, not an easy task but you can do little damage and it should be manageable
- Laying wooden floors: I think here too you make few mistakes apart from aesthetic flaws + you can buy the floor cheaply
- Paving the outdoor area: Questionable whether a layman can do that well with slopes, etc.?
- Building the fireplace yourself: We want a three-sided fireplace as a room divider, so work with insulating stones + plastering would be necessary? Feasible or better leave it alone?

Thanks in advance for your opinion

In general, you can only do what you are capable of. Painting and laying floors are the classics. However, since some floors should be glued down better on underfloor heating, it becomes difficult again. At a distance of 100 km one way, it’s also not possible to do something for 3-4 hours in the evening; almost only the weekend remains for you.

For paving, you can help yourself or organize 2-3 friends, the same goes for the outdoor facilities.

Final cleaning can also be done (if it’s worth the $), moving can also be organized yourself.

The easiest way to save money would have been to simply build the house 20, 30, or even more square meters smaller and leave out fun things like balconies, etc.

First of all: congratulations on the good offer!! There is really a lot included! Floor slab / basement not yet, right? We are also considering painting ourselves and laying floors. In my opinion, that offers the greatest savings potential with the least risk. However, with you I would carefully consider whether it is even worth it: driving 200 km every time, with a small child, presumably as a side job. Would a saving of, for example, 5000/10000 € justify the risk of burnout, which costs many times more?

Yep, if three people build 240 sqm you can probably afford to forgo self-labor. Given the distance, at most the two mentioned classics are conceivable in 2-4 weeks of vacation before moving in.

Thanks for the hints:

I would of course take a few days off or possibly unpaid parental leave and then lay floors or paint all at once.

Who decides whether a parquet floor should be glued? I need to find out.

Building smaller was unfortunately not possible. It is a replacement building, so we were bound to that. However, I am quite aware that this is the biggest cause of the costs.

But don't underestimate the effort, painting the huge place alone will take several weeks.