You did all of that for 48K 
? Wow. We're doing the same right now and the painting bid was 13.5k alone. (Joe's not kidding about paint, y'all)
Well, my wife and I are both photographers, not stock brokers, so we had to do some of the work ourselves to stay within budget. This is included removing the wallpaper (every wall had wallpaper on it) and painting ourselves. Thankfully we have plaster walls, which can be steamed to hell and back and not really be effected. I (personally) also demoed the kitchen to the baring walls and joists, installed a new subfloor, new framing, walls, new finished floor and tile backsplash. (Although I am fairly good at carpentry, I knew enough to have a professional hang the cabinets and hired that out.) Our kitchen is also only 12x12 feet, so the cost of my raw materials was not too high and we did not get custom cabinets. (I did have one of my clients price custom cabinets out; they alone would have cost about the same as what we spent entirely and decided ... next house.) We also got a crazy 40% discount on KitchenAid appliances from an in-law through a work perk, which helped out as well. Along with this, I choose to repair all of the lath and plaster in the holes left by the electricians.
Although we did go all in on the rewiring (had knob & tube previously), only major plumbing was replaced, namely the stack, sanitary "T," kitchen drain line. We also had three radiator lines, both kitchen water lines and the kitchen gas line moved, and the kitchen sink vent repaired. So it was not every pipe in the house, just the major ones and some of the radiator lines. We have a row house with flat roofs, which are cheaper to replace then angled roofs, so the foyer roof was only $1500 to replace. Also, our floors were in good shape, so we only had them buffed with one new coat, not sanded down to bare wood and then three layers added on. This saved a good deal as well.
I figure if we had hired everything out, we would have probably spent another $35K to $40K on additional labor, which we would not have had after the above expenses and the down payment, so there was really no option but to do it ourselves. Although a fairly involved project that I realize most would not have taken on, my wife and I don't get daunted easily, and after what we saw was available on the market, especially with the kitchens, we decided this was the best option for us.
Aside from the paint, another object that surprised me was the cost of new radiators. We removed the kitchen wall to the dining room and choose to replace the old cast iron radiator with thinner modern Hudson Reed one, which I had noticed on projects I have photographed in NYC. The new radiator was $700; I was floored when I saw this. Radiators are damn expensive.
