Unless you intend to restore wood windows and other specific elements you might want to skip this.

Sometimes the architect can take on some of the elements of it but I tried that and wouldn't recommend it- an specialist should do it 100%. 

The elements beat against the front door and you're coming in with wet shoes for a good part of the summer months.

Figured out one of the heating elements was dead.

But, crime isn't bad (which is relative, really, check out portlandmaps.com and you'll get a good feel for city stats), and the schools are OK (7/10 on zillow, a few lower ranked ones too though).  

That said, as @Pat L. mentioned, running stand alone flue pipe through a masonry chimney is not uncommon at all, for the very reasons you're asking.Keep in mind though, you'll likely need a custom cap made to keep out the elements and critters.On another note, if the chimney is "flaking all over the place", is it sound?

Probably a stupid question, but when considering the quality of the electrical and plumbing work, is that something that an inspector could look at during the due-diligence period, or would it be necessary to separately bring in a subcontractor to look at those elements?

What other elements are you seeking for your lifestyle?

Here's why (and apologies if this is too Excel geeky):If you do your own bookkeeping in something like QB, and can't easily import transactions, then entering them individually is a pain - especially with multiple cards/jobs, and if you want to track your expenditures at a more detailed level like Drywall, HVAC, framing, etc.Dumping the transactions to Excel allows you to pivot the data by data elements like Month, Job, Department, so that you can generate a summarized journal entry which can then be entered into QB once - you just need to keep the detailed data somewhere accessible for backup.Example:If I pivot my home depot detailed data for March 2015 I see that I had expenditures for one job for the following departments: BLDG.

In the month between groundbreak and shipping we ran utilities, prepared foundations, garages and other site built elements.