Simply Windows & More Inc

To put it "simply", this was the worst contracting experience of my life.  The total project cost was to be $135k.  We paid them $82k upfront, and work finally started 5 months after our initial payment.  They worked about 3 hours per day (on good days), the owner Dave Heyder was never on location to supervise, they made huge costly mistakes in the framing which later had to be corrected, the brand new roof leaked with any rainfall, and the list goes on and on.
2 months into the project we found out that Dave had never even gotten the requireed permits to do any of the construction on our home.  The city halted work on our home.  It is now 8 months later and no new work has taken place, only about $30k worth of work was done and Dave has not returned a call in 6 months.  They left construction debris all over my yard, a room half done, and my yard completely torn up from their equipment.  We are now suing him for fraud and breach of contract.
I secured the permits on my own and are moving forward with a reputable contractor.   Lessons learned here: 1) don't EVER pay a contractor upfront...if they ask for payment upfront, find a new contractor; 2) make sure a permit is hanging in your front window before ANYONE starts work on your home, ultimately you are responsible if the work is done without a permit because the contractor will bail out and come up with an alibi; 3) verify the contractor's workers comp insurance because you are responsible if a worker gets hurt on your property and the contractor has no insurance or is under-insured; 4) get photo ID's for every worker who shows up at your home, photocopy them and keep them on file; 5) get lien waivers before you cut a single check to your contractor; and 6) most importantly, find your contractor from a reputable source like Angie's List.
I hope my horrible, expensive experience is a lesson to everyone wanting to hire a contractor.