I bought a new house in Nov '02. Since then, I've done some remodeling:

1) installed recessed lights & bathroom vents
2) installed a pocket door
3) installed in-ceiling speakers
4) installed tile flooring
5) did the backyard

Lets see...

1) for the recessed lights & bathroom vents, I had to fix drywall and
repaint in just about every room they went into (and somehow in some they
didn't!!). The drywall guy they recommended did a horrible job and I had to
have it redone by THREE DIFFERENT people before it looked decent. Also had
to clean the carpets.

2) wow, lets not even get into this one too much. nobody really wanted to do
it, even for $1500 which seemed to be the general estimate. finally one
"handy man" decided to do it... he never showed up half the time, it was
starting to take 3 times as long as he said and the work was horrible. Walls
were crooked, light switches were crooked, he ruined the carpet in one room
(by SLASHING IT WITH A KNIFE) and he damaged the floor in the bathroom. I
had enough and just fired him. His idea of patching drywall involved
literally SMEARING mud on the wall like a child finger painting. It ended up
costing me close to $4000 to repair all his damage and finishing the job.

3) the guy who put in the in-ceiling speakers well, lets just say he had no
problem cutting holes in drywall.. about 10 of them in a single room.
Another thousand to repair his damage.

4) the tile flooring guys came on time and only took a day or two longer
then they said, but they damaged every wall they got near and stained the
carpet, and somehow got grout on the OUTSIDE of a 2nd story window!!!

5) the backyard guy kept "forgetting" to come by to give me an estimate...
after about 5 times he finally came by, and when I asked to keep his plan so
I could show it to my parents who were coming over the weekend, he accused
me of stealing his design and not hiring him for the job. Even though I did
end up hiring him. He did a decent job I suppose.

Now the latest adventure... I have a steel entry door that warped... the
builder wouldn't talk to me, the installer ended up giving me a new door but
charged for the labor (since the house is out of warranty) and wouldn't
paint it.

So again, nobody would want to come out and paint it... one guy said he
would but then called with the typical 'my truck broke down'. Finally found
a guy to do it yesterday... "he got busy" so had to reschedule for today...
good thing I took a day off yesterday...sigh...

So finally they paint it today... good lord... they don't bother to take the
door hardware off, so its covered with paint. The rest of the door is
covered with drips, and "levels" and blisters... this handyman says "oh,
that's normal"... uh...

I wonder how much time and money it'll take me to fix this door. I'm already
in the hole $150 for the labor to install it and $200 for this painter, who
I aint paying a dime to until its perfect. I should have just kept the
warped door.

These people are all f*cken idiots...

Or I should have just painted the door myself... I was going to if this guy
didn't show up today... looks like I made the wrong decision letting him do
it.