I just did my own DIY system this summer and it certainly did take a lot of time! That being said I only spent half of what I would have spent on a solar installation company to do everything for me. If you want to read more about my break even calculations you can do so here
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/solar-...culations.html
What I did was I searched for a local electrician willing to help me with the parts I didn't feel confident to do myself and I managed to find one. He gave me some documents to help with the permit, but I took care of the rest of the permit process/documents (huge pain and time suck for sure) myself. He replaced my main breaker, connected the inverter and ran conduit to roof. I installed racking, optomizers and panels on the roof and connected to where he left off. It ended up working well, but it wasn't without a certain amount of stress and was a steep learning curve. I wouldn't just recommend it to anyone, it requires a certain type of person or skill set for me to recommend doing it yourself. If you're able to find an electrician to also help you with the parts you don't want to do or can't do yourself then I think that's your best bet. Solar installation companies are charging a significant premium above equipment costs for their labor which I think is overly high. Having done it myself and knowing how much faster I'd be able to do it even just a second time I think they charge far too much for what they're doing.