On Thu, 13 Oct 2005 14:22:49 -0700, "Nobody" wrote:


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.


The good ones don't need more work, so you get the ousy ones because
they return calls. One lesson to learn: if you don't need someting
done badly enough to do it yourself, leave it lay.

The last job I hired out was siding, windows and gutters on our
25-year-old house. The guy I wanted took about five months from the
time I called him until he started the job. I'd done work for him
before and knew his mother-in-law, so I was confident he was the guy I
wanted. He did a great job, could've done a little better at picking
up nails that probably flew when the gutters were removed, but other
than that I have no complaints.