As for lead paint, if the house was built before 1978 and has painted trim, it likely has lead paint.

Sometimes it's best to sub out specialty trades and use GC for the finish work (cabinets, trim, paint, etc.)

I am an interior trim contractor.

Apparently the ants are coming through the unsealed areas in the bathroom where builder did a poor job of caulking and sealing the gap under trims.

And I am just going to bullet point everything here that was noted with some type of recommendation by the inspector: -repair / seal walkway / (cracked concrete)-cracked retaining wall-some cracks in foundation (house was built in 1930)-few areas of rot around window trim***-1 piece of vinyl siding missing-garage structure very questionable, including roof, and signs of previous (maybe even current) pest activity***-front gutter brackets not under shingles like they should be*** -crack in chimney-some broken basement windows-doors throughout the house that don't close / latch as they should -2 visible signs of knob and tube wiring -lack of support to beam in basement*** -cast iron water pipes in basement rotted (should be replaced with PVC)***-some leaky faucets throughout May seem like a lot, but honestly I didn't think it was too bad of a list considering the age of the house.

For example, floor trim often has lead paint and removing to replace it with more modern trim may not be very expensive.  

*Trim molding around the island*Stairs*No shelves in pantry*Casing around the window*1 pendant light left to hang*Register vent covers and air vent under the island*Finish baseboard molding and register vent along the wall*Paint/Spackle touch up around the walls*Tile back-splash not finished*Cabinet hardware not installed*Lazy susan not attachedContractor: (sends me a copy of the bill) and says, "Ok we will address all concerns you have but will not do additional work like the steps until balance is paid"Signed,Please advise!!!

With this done and the sanding ready to go we can get the walls primed, then the interior door and trim package sent out (next week).They drape the house with a masking roll and light poly.

We are well into finishing now, lets show some photos and move on.post 37 - more finishingOn these smaller inner city jobs it makes a lot of sense to get the trim and door work done before the cabinets.

Bad ::: The house had an extremely heavy smoker living in it prior to me (previous owner died of lung cancer and I could see why) tar was dripping down the walls and trim throughout the house.