Oscar Improvement

I fired him. I hired him once before to replace the siding on my house, take out a sliding patio door, replace it with a standard outside door and put in a new window. He also replaced three interior doors, two bi-fold doors, built a new privacy fence, and a new deck. There were problems with the first job he did; bi-folds are falling down, storm doors that don't seal well (you can see light coming in around the doors), damaged the concrete on the front porch, phone outlet unattached, either no caulk where needed or a very thin application, promised to paint the exhaust cover before putting it back up, which he didn't, and nails that weren't set correctly and just pounded in sideways. The fence is crooked and leans to one side. Through out, he was very nice, and kept telling me whatever I needed done, he would do. At the end, do to rain, the project went over and so he told me he would finish the plaster work etc. when he came back. After he left, I started finding all of the things he left undone/badly done but figured he would fix all of it when he came back. I called him several months later to begin the final renovation work. As we did the walk through while I explained what I wanted done, he insisted I had to install high end finishes like granite counter tops, cermaic tile floors, and wanted to paint everything in the interior shell white. We would have been using off the shelf cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms so using granite/ceramic tile was inappropriate and paticularly when you considered the type of middle class starter home neighborhood where the house is located. Also, using stark white paint on everything would not have added to the look of the house. My realtor confirmed all of this to me. Use neutral colors on the walls, but not white, it looks too stark and it would be crazy to use high end finishes in this neighborhood. The contractor would not back off and would not listen and went so far as to quote the painting based on using white everywhere. When he finally understood that he wasn't going to get to paint the interior the way he wanted, he told me the original quote would have to go up, because he hadn't planned on cutting in, and it would be harder and take him more time. I picked a wall color for the kitchen and hallway, was working on the ceiling and trim color when he informed me that we would be using ceiling white with the same color on the trim. He put it to me as if there was no option, went out, and bought the paint. I also told him I needed the work done in a certain order, garage and storage room first, followed by the bathrooms, then the kitchen and then paint the rest of the house. I was plannig on moving everything out of the kitchen and into the storage room while they where working on the bathrooms. He finally showed up to do the work three days late. Of course he had no paint etc. to start on the garage/storage room and when asked what color I told him to go ahead and use the shell white out there. No, he didn't want to do that, told me it had to be a darker color, so I quickly picked a light yellow. He had two workers with him and insisted they had to start on something so I agreed to let them take up the kitchen flooring while he went for paint. He left, the guys start working, discovered they didn't have the right tools to take up the floor and had to go buy them. At some point, he came back, dropped off the paint and left with out saying anything to me. I was outside putting things into a storage unit when one of the workers came out and told me I had to move everything out of the kitchen cabinets right away so he could tear them out and get the flooring out from under them. I told him the order in which the work was to be done, he was suprised but said he would start painting the garage/storage room right away, went to his truck and came back to tell me he didn't have any rollers. He and his helper then shoveled up the loose pieces of tile, threw them on a tarp in the driveway and left. They didn't sweep the floor so it was still covered with small pieces of broken vinyl tie which stuck to my feet and that of my cats and got spread all over the house and sidewalk and yard. I'm still picking them up and had to sweep up the floor myself. They had pulled everything out of the garage to paint but as they hadn't even started, it had to stay out in the driveway overnight. Electric leaf blowers, boxes that had been packed, a new lawn mower etc. So they showed up the next morning, didn't come to the door to let me know they where here and after I realized it and opened the garage door, just walked in the house with out knocking. The garage light needed new bulbs which the contractor was supposed to have gotten the day before but didn't so they needed a light. They took a floor lamp out of the storage room and used that along with my broom and ladders. If they had asked if they could use my things that would have been one thing but they didn't. They just started using my stuff because, despite the fact they knew they would be painting, they didn't bring anything with them except rollers and brushes. While the helpers painted the garage/storage room the contractor decided to go ahead and power wash the roof. Unfortunately, he didn't cover anything sitting in the driveway or anything on the deck which included a rug, two wicker chairs, houseplants, my vacum cleaner, and outside chairs and tables. I realized too late what he was doing and was only able to grab one of the wicker chairs. Everything got soaked with black dirty water, which he tried to wash off with the power washer but the plants where still covered and I still haven't been able to get the smell out of the rug. He set the vacum cleaner out in the middle of the yard while he was trying to clean up and left it out there. I discovered it out there the next day after it had rained all night. Then he left, with out saying a word to me. His workers "finished" painting the garage, took out some old carpet that was out there, and started priming the kitchen and hallway ceiling and walls. Too late I realized they where using oil based primer which made me so sick I had to leave for awhile and have had my windows open ever since trying to get the fumes out. Also, since they insisted they needed to take out the cabinets, I had spent several hours packing up everything. The storage room wasn't ready so I had to stack the boxes in the living room and dining room. While one guy primed, the other one rushed me out of the kitchen and started tearing out the cabinets which he then stacked on and around the outdoor trash can. After they finally left, I walked around looking at the work they had done and found; splattered paint on the door hardware that was new and had only been installed several months before. Oil primer on oiled bronze hardware both on the inside and outside of the doors. They had also painted over the strike plates, electrical outlets, and any nails that where in the walls in the storage room, dripped paint all over the floor, walked in it and tracked it all over the brick sidewalk I had just put in myself. In the kitchen and hallway they had primed over picture hangers, cracks and dings and in other words did not prep the walls. They had even painted some of the little vinyl pieces onto the wall. The primer hadn't been applied evenly, in some places it was so thick it rippled, in others there was little or no primer and there where raised roller marks everywhere. They also primed the back hallway but with the ceiling light out so basically they did it in the dark. One of the guys showed up the next morning, it was Saturday, to do some more work. I pointed out all of the problems and told him no more oiled based primer. He fixed a few things and told me that since he couldn't use the primer, there was nothing more he could do and left after telling me I now had to get everything out of the living room and dining room so they could start painting in those rooms. Monday morning the helpers showed back up but not the contractor. I called and left a message that I needed to talk to him right away