Not my cup of tea.As for any repairs that may be required, you can certainly use those to negotiate a lower price for the house.

Sheetrock is now finished, finish trim is going in over the next few days and that interior paint starts later this week.That leaves all the finishes (flooring, cabinets, countertops, lighting, plumbing fixtures, etc) for the following couple weeks.

But don't over improve and when deciding on what flooring/fixtures/finishes in your price range, go for the most durable!

Homeowners spend a lot of money doing bathroom/kitchen renovations for the holidays, so expect your tile, fixtures, cabinets, and even appliances to be a little higher than in the summer.

If you are just doing cosmetic changes like changing flooring and replacing fixtures you could do it yourself, but if you have any work that requires pulling permits you can get into trouble.

3) Last one, when picking out cabinets/fixtures/carpet/flooring/paint colors do you just provide all this information to the contractors?

It has newer kitchen, hardwood floors throughout, new paint and fixtures etc.We're looking to test the waters for section 8, we've looked at gosection8.com for the area and pricing is all over the place. 

Usually I'll just run the various fixtures.  

it might even cost a little more depending on who buys the fixtures; obviously you aren't going nuts with recessed lights, so my numbers may be a little high.  

I know it isn't my cup of tea but obviously that doesn't mean that it can't work for someone else!