So not geographically limited exactly but the quality of life is pretty high here if you are ok with the cold. 

The larger national footprint firms will be able to give you good economies of scale but your experience will still be limited to the quality of your assigned representative. 

First is quality of construction.

yes that will most likely disqualify it from VA. you should just remove it. call a local contractor to see how, if they don't want to do it they may be kind enough to tell you how to. since its not popcorn ceiling the chances of it hurting you are almost 0. once it's removed, get your home tested for air quality and provide that to the VA loan officer and you should be good to go

She said she'd look into it and get back with me but never did.I still may put solar panels on the house down the road, to include the energy production needed, that the ADU consumes.

In the absence of good lighting, as contractor, will you provide your own ancillary lighting, or will you just get by, which could impact the quality of work performed? 

your running a bunch of different concepts together.. suggest you really get a little more educated on the subject before just asking for advice on the internet.. we do a ton of infill building each market is different.. and there are about 3 or 4 different insurance products.. so you need to be specific..  

I usually set myself a maximum price I am willing to pay per door, but I have gone beyond that on this one because of location and its quality units.

There are many appraisers who will never change the value no matter the quality of your comparable sales. 

I have replumbed many homes in PEX it is the hot ticket, I recently purchased a Propress for crimping copper and also got the jaws for F1807 Pex rings, but i see Ryobi now has a cordless pinch ring tool for a reasonable price. https://www.ryobitools.com/power-tools/products/de...