Rebecca's Wall Covering

This was one time I didn't consult Angie's List to find a contractor. This is because I hired her to put up wallpaper long before I even joined Angie's List. Three summers ago she put up wall-paper in my kitchen, and did an excellent job. Two summers ago she put up wallpaper in my hallway, and did an excellent job. So when I wanted to wallpaper my dining room, living room, and bathroom, I decided to stick with someone I knew would do an excellent job. My dining room is adjacent to the living room with a wide connecting area, so both rooms needed to match. I decided to replace all the ugly old wall paper in the dining room, and match the opposite wall of the living room with the same paper. I decided to paint the three remaining walls of the living room with a light blue color that was compatible with the wallpaper. Being a male not born with a "decorating gene" I had my daughters pick out the wallpaper as well as the paint color. Rebecca loved the wallpaper pattern, but said she would go with a different hue of paint. Being stubborn (and cheap) I stuck to my guns and kept the same color, especially since I already paid for the paint. The color matched well enough for me. She also wallpapered my daughter's bathroom. She wasn't shy about trying to talk me into buying a new mirror and light-fixture, which I did, to my daughters' delight. I was so pleased with my daughters' bathroom, I decided to tell her to go ahead and wallpaper my bathroom too, with the same paper. This way we used left over paper from one bathroom in the other, decreasing the number of double rolls I needed to order for the new bathroom. A problem arose when we discovered a flaw in one of the new rolls, but she managed to place the roll where the bathroom mirror would hide the defect. All in all, once again she did an excellent job. My daughter painted my living room, although Rebecca paints, too. She said my daughter did an excellent job, a genuine compliment, coming from her. At last, all the walls I wanted to wallpaper are complete, so I won't need her services again any time soon. I almost wish I did, as she has a very pleasant personality and is a pleasure to work with.

Once the counter and floor people were done, I called her to let her know she could get started. She stated that we needed to remove all our kitchen cubbard doors so that the person painting the cabinets could take them to his "warehouse" to paint. I later learned that the "warehouse" was the painter's basement. The cabinet painter did an excellant job and returned the doors to us so that we could put them back on the cabinets. She then personally began to remove the kitchen and bath wallpaper, soon discovering that the wallpaper had been directly applied to the drywall and not pretreated. So she then proceeded to treat and sand the walls. Since she did not complete the process that day, she had an employee come to continue "preping" the walls. The person that did this job, left layer upon layer of wall dust all over the newly tiled floor. Then when I called her to paint the bathroom, she sent her daughter, Heidi who hastily painted the walls because she had to meet her mother at the skating rink where she had a popcorn concession. Heidi not only left areas weakly painted or not painted at all. Moreover, Heidi also left dust throughout the powder room. Rebecca was unable to work in most of November and all of December. The late part of December through February I was hospitalized therefore unable to watch whatever staff she had to complete the job. In March, she had her wall paint person come to finish the living room. While the job was completed, again it was unacceptible. She once again sent her detail person out to touch up and in some cases "reroll" the walls. The original person designated to do the walls did not tape anything which could have prevented some of the paint bleeding into the adjoining room. Moreover, he did not use a drop cloth. Overall, I was sold a bill of goods. Shame on me. I have subsequently researched the Better Business Bureau, of which she claimed she was a member of . She is not..Who knows if she's bonded and insured She also told me she had been doing this work for 15 years. Angie's list specifies in her words, six years. She was present only one time during the entire job. In all fairness, her detail person did a beautiful job with everything he did. The few touchups he did promptly. For the amount of money I paid her, and the poor workmenship, mistruths, and delays, all I can say is "caveat emptor."