Andy Handy Man

Andriy told me at first he charged $15/hr. When he arrived, he tried to talk me up to $20/hr because not painting ceilings required more expert work. We settled on $17.50/hr. And rather than hourly work, we settled on a flat fee of $700 for what he estimated would be five days of work. Then he started negotiating about the floor separately (I had told him this was part of the job) and I agreed to pay him $50 more. The next day, I found out from the paint store guy that putting another coat of varnish on the floor would require a few extra steps including sanding. I called Andriy and asked him if he had ever done floor varnishing before and he said no, and when I explained what the job would entail, the negotiations started again. I agreed to tack on another $50. I bought the materials myself -- paint, drop cloths, and a few other things. He had his own brushes and rollers. I spent a little over $600 on materials. I have no complaints about Andriy's work itself. He recommended painting the bathroom ceiling as well (since the previous paint was flat rather than eggshell, which he said would resist water better), and though he tried to charge me extra for this too, he agreed to throw it in without additional pay. Some of the previous patching in the walls turned out to be shoddier than he'd thought at first, and he screwed and sanded and fixed the problems (again, at the end this time, he tried to charge me more). On the final walkthrough, he touched up a few last places at my request. The job--including the floor--was done very well, in a bit less time than $800 worth at the hourly rate. I was very satisfied with the work. The only reason I wouldn't use him again is that I found the constant haggling over money to be unprofessional of him and stressful for me.