D M Painting

It was a total disaster. The owner, Doug Moody, told us the project would take 2-4 weeks. They practically lived with us for 4 months. They came and went at inconvenient times - evenings, weekends... and often for very short periods at a time. We lived with unusable rooms (including main living areas) for days/weeks at a time, often filled with painting gear and supplies. The quality of the workmanship is terrible. We took over 60 photographs of separate 'messes'. These range from those in full view in main living areas, to sections that we just completely missed. Different paint finishes were mixed so that walls have different looks to them, zero finish work (edging, window sills, etc are sloppy and bleed over onto the neighboring walls). The sides of door frames are not painted, while the hinges are paint coated and therefore difficult to open. Additionally, we removed all door knobs, light fixtures and window dressings to assist in easy and complete access. We have lived for the past 16 months (the 4 months that they lived with us and the 12 months since they left) without smoke alarms, uninstalled sinks (they sit away from the wall), bare light bulbs and windows without coverings, and therefore privacy. They spray painted inside - the blow back covered everything. Clothing, furniture, bedding - EVERYTHING. They painted the carpet , left splatter on windows, and painted onto door and window glass. Sections of the floor were left unstained/unfinished. For example, the pantry and under the fridge... we recently installed a new fridge which is a different size than the prior and there is a 3 inch space that is the color of the old floor. This cannot be patched up, so the entire floors need to be refinished. Our boys have novelty themes in their bedrooms - one is baseball with a large mural, the other is PNW outdoors with a forest/deer mural and the last is rock'n'roll. They were told to leave these untouched. Ironically, they did not paint properly where they were supposed to, but then went into these rooms and removed the frames and skirting boards and painted them - and pulled off the paint all around the frame work on the walls. Now these rooms need to be completely refinished. When I tried to reach the owner, there were a myriad of excuses. His cell phone was damaged/ruined in the snow. His father had a stroke. His colleague's father was dying out of state. They were working on another project and too busy. Frankly, due to the horrific quality of the work, we had ZERO faith that they could deliver an improved final product (otherwise, why wouldn't they have done that level of high quality work at the beginning? And if they were capable but chose not to, then we have no confidence in their ethics and professionalism). During this time, we had 3 new contractors come in and bid the project as net new. They were gobsmacked by the price tag of $14K and every quote was at least $8,500 LESS, with good references. We are now faced with a loss of at least that amount, and have to live through another period of having contractors in our home with 3 boys and 3 dogs. We will likely end up filing a lawsuit against the owner, but I'd like to help prevent anyone else having to go through this h*** if possible. If anyone would like to see the photographs of the issues I have described above, I am happy to share.