Rico's Construction

Description of Work: I hired Fred (aka Frederico, aka Rico) Gurule dba Rico's Construction (NOT Rico Construction), to repair the side of my carport by resetting six posts, reframing and stuccoing the side of my carport as well as the front facade and touch up stucco patching on 4/15/13 for $2300.00 (paid). Initially work began quickly with two non-English speakers who were slow, messy and who, either through miscommunication or inexperience, made obvious errors in their work, such as only partially wrapping the structure to prepare for stucco (just doing the front side), and the framing so visibly crooked that many of my neighbors asked whether or not it would be fixed. All the while, Mr. Gurule promised to make things right while pumping me for more money. As a professional Realtor for 9+ years, I deal with the trades frequently but Mr. Gurule is the slickest operator I have ever had the displeasure of working with. Not only was he a fast talker, he was also inappropriate, hugging me and continually calling me "babe." On day one, I had not yet backed my car out of my carport so I asked him to park my car on the street. Instead, he took my car and was gone for 30 minutes, I believe, going to McDonald's. I should have fired him on the spot but didn't. He was fresh and forward, even barging through my front door to go to my refrigerator for "something cold to drink!" Who does this? Between the 20th and 23rd, I had a new roof put on by a professional company. Excellent work. No complaints. Monday, April 29, 2002, Mr. Gurule returned and informed me that he would not be able to match my stucco as we had initially discussed. Still thinking I could salvage the work situation and having already paid money, I did agree to a full restucco that day and wrote him a check for $1800.00 which he said he needed for materials. He took my check, did a little jig (really!) and off he went. That's the last time any work was done. The workers were to return the next day, 4/30/13 to patch and prep my house for the whole house restucco. He said the scratch coat they did on my posts needed to "cure" for 3 days but that the workers could come and do prep work and patching to prepare for the whole house stucco. No one showed up Tuesday so I called Mr. Gurule who said "Jesus #1" would definitely be there 8:00 on Wednesday. Again, nobody showed up. I called Mr. Gurule again and he told me that the worker had gone to the casino and was too hung over to come to work. I told him he had one more chance to get it right. Mr. Gurule hung up on me on the phone! Thursday morning came and went, again with no worker. Finally, the worker showed up with his wife at 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon and seemed absolutely unprepared and perplexed as to what he should be doing. I had enough. I dismissed the worker and when I finally was able to reach Mr. Gurule by phone I informed him this wasn't going to work out and to return the $1800.00 I wrote a check for on Monday, 4/29/13 and the $750.00 I paid him for patching (which, by the way, was initially included in the original $2300 which I paid. Continued below.