Can't be done.
Rules, regulations, laws, and permits put a stop to all formalizing it. If you want anything done to your house and not involve a contractor, you have to break some law or another.
In Chicago, it is the law.
So, you confine it to non-building stuff -- cleaning out basements/garages, moving, lawn work, etc.
" If you want anything done to your house and not involve a contractor, you have to break some law or another."
BS! The owners can do any construction except to install a new meter panel or make a sewer connection to the city sewer, and that is residental or commercial.