What stuff do I need for a new kitchen?

Help me understand what tradies I'm going to need

• I have a bunch of (mostly small) jobs that I need done around the house, and I'm trying to figure out how many different tradies I need to hire to do them: installing a bathroom vanity; replacing about ten tiles in the shower; installing a new pendant light; servicing the ducted gas heating; installing underfloor insulation (although I'm considering DIYing this); and removing half a staircase. Do I need to hire a different person for each task, or can they be batched somehow? (I assume the tiles and vanity can be done by the same person at least). Note: this is in Australia, so I'd prefer Australian answers as these sorts of things differ somewhat regionally and culturally. We finally bought a house (thanks for all house-related answers to previous questions!) (It isn't the circular lounge place of my previous question, in case you are wondering.) There are a few small jobs we will need to do once we move in, and while we prefer to DIY, presumably we will have to get tradies to do some of it (by law, in the case of the light fitting and plumbing, for example). I don't have a firm grasp of what sorts of tradies do what sorts of jobs, but I also don't want to hire a general contractor if I don't need to, since I'm happy to do all the project management stuff myself as long as I can figure out who I need. I'm a bit worried that some of the jobs might be too small for someone to want to come out for (e.g. wiring one light fitting). Is that likely? As for the staircase, it is currently a sort of inverted v that goes up half a floor to the lounge (the house is split-level). We want to remove half of the v so that it goes from the front entryway to the lounge, and not back down to the kitchen on the other side as it does now. (That way we can use the space where the second half of the stairs are now as a walk-in pantry.) We would need to put in a wall at the top of the stairs, too, of course. I've tried to draw what I mean https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-Kf3sCLAFapTG1acmVGbldkeDg/view?usp=sharing and the floorplan is https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-Kf3sCLAFapQy1NSjU2Rm90b1k/view?usp=sharing, in case it's unclear. I'm assuming this is not really DIY-able. But what sort of tradie would we approach for this job? And does anyone know if we would need a council permit for it? (NSW)

• Answer:

  Not sure if there are intercontinental terminology differences or special rules about who can touch what where you are, but the first three jobs are pretty simple and sound like they could be DIY'ed or accomplished by a handyman (i.e. a one-person concern with a truck and some tools and some general fix-it knowledge) while the staircase renovation sounds like the territory of a real builder who would understand the structural implications of your proposed plan and know if reinforcement needs to be added, permits pulled etc.