I wish I could post photos here to show everyone the work that was done on my house.

I recently decided to renovate my laundry/pantry area. It is about 65 square feet. Originally there were two closets in there as well as my washer and dryer that stood side by side. Since I was buying a new washer and dryer I decided to just redo the whole room. The idea was to tear down the closets, pull up the flooring, fix the room, put in new tiles, add floor to ceiling shelving and paint it. Everything with the demo went ok. It just took longer than I expected. My old washer and dryer went out the door and my new washer and dryer delivery had to be put off because I hadn't finished the room. I work full time so I was attempting to do this project at night and on the weekends. I was at Lowes one night, buying supplies to lay my new tiles when a man stopped and offered me advice. He saw me again about 20 minutes later and offered me more advice. I don't think I looked lost while I was there, I had a very detailed list of what I needed...but I am female and tend to notice that men offer assistance at these stores. I don't mind. I thanked him for his help. About ten minutes later he saw me again and gave me his business card. Said if I ever had questions I should give him a call. His advice was always free. I tucked his card into my purse and went on my merry way.

A few days later I decided it was time to let someone else finish the job. It wasn't that I couldn't finish-but I just didn't want to anymore. Having only a few hours a day to work on it was causing me to be exhausted. In a genius moment I called the guy on the business card. What a nice man he was offering all that free advice. His phone was answered by his pregnant fianc� who I had also met at Lowes. They had just returned home from church I was told. If I could give them enough time to eat lunch he would come out and take a look at what else needed to be done.

They arrived a few hours later.

I took them into my room and showed them what the 'end goal was. Some of my mudding needed to be fixed. Tiles needed to be laid along with the hardibacker board, etc. I wanted floor to ceiling shelving. I was thinking that a dark brown would look nice. I needed the place painted. A medium gray.

Too easy he said. Said they will also haul away all of the debri from my demoing.

Everything I said I wanted done-he said yes. I was going to buy premade shelves but he said he could custom make any design I wanted. Told me he would draw up a plan on his computer that night and email it to me. We went through all of the supplies and tools I had. We identified a few things that we would need. I made a list and agreed to go get it all minus the large drywall sheets. And I did. They should have had everything. This was on a Sunday. Work was scheduled to start Thursday and be complete by Saturday am. I gave a check for 50 percent of the total plus an extra 250.00 as a material deposit...

Monday morning I receive an early call. They had a crew free. Could I have my house open for work at 11? Sure. I take off work to come open the house. At 12 nobody is there yet. I call. Something came up. They will be there at 4. I take off work and open the house at 4. At 5 nobody is there yet. I call. Emergency came up they say. This continues all week long. I took off work at least twice a day to open the house yet nobody ever comes. On Thursday night, I'm mad. They tell me the tile guys will be there in the am. I'm confused as to why they would do the floor first before the drywall...but I'm a DIY-ER. What do I know?

The tile guys come and lay the tile. Actually looks pretty nice. Then I find out they didn't screw the hardibacker down, only put thinset under it and didn't tape the joints. I find all this out because they hand me the supplies at the end and say I should take them back to the store because they didnt need them. Freaking awesome, right?

The guys say they will be there later to start on the walls. I'm worried because the tiles still shouldnt be walked on anyways. I shouldn't have worried though because at 10pm, they still haven't showed up.

I'm on the phone venting to my mom when she asks if I had looked up this company to see if there were any previous complaints. DUH!!! Why oh why didn't I do this before???? Just because someone java business card doesn't mean they are legit. What is wrong with me?!?!? So I google him. What is the first thing that comes up? A crime alert about a scam artist-my 'contactor'. Oh my word. I immediately bust into tears. That's why they haven't been showing up. I head over to my neighbors for some advice and we read the crime alert in full. It says to contact the police if approached by this man. Immediatly. So i call it in. We text my contractor to let him know we know about his scams. He texts that he is going to come over and talk. He arrives. Moments later the police arrive. Turns out part of the reason my contractor wasn't there all week is because he was in jail. Had just gotten out the night before. I'm handed this big sob story about how he is trying to turn his life around. How he has been crooked in the past but has changed. After talking to the officer and my contractor for quite some time, we agree to give him the chance to prove himself. He does have a chunk of my money after all. He assures the police he will be at my house the next morning at 8.

At 930 when he arrives the next morning all seems to be going well. The hang new drywall and mud. Leave after a couple hours of work and say they will be back after lunch. No show. Calls at 9pm and says he will be there first thing in the am. At 2 oclock I still havent heard from them. Says he will be there at 6. No show. Says he will be there first thing in the morning. I take off work yet again. He arrives at noon. Muds again and says he has to leave. Will be back that night. No show. Says this morning at 730 he will be there. At 9am he arrives. Says it will take two hours to finish. I take off work. Again. At five in the afternoon he is finally done..and I am beyond appalled. There are paint drips everywhere. On the door jams, windowsills, 'baseboards'. You can see mud lines clear as day. There are actual holes in the wall. My floor to ceiling custom shelves? Three pressed wood planks spray painted white. THREE!!! He used door casings as my baseboards. Some are cracked. They don't extend all the way around the room. There are gaps that have no baseboards. The gray paint is all over the ceiling. My garage door opener is now hanging by wires. My crawl space is flooded and there is goo and PVC pipes laying all over the place. They went through my demo debri and took everything they wanted (like the door frames and 2X4s and left the other stuff all over my front and back yard. In some places on the walls the mud under the paint is still wet. They grouted my dryer vent and broke two tiles. It's a mess. An absolute mess. I told them I wasnt satisfied with the work. And please trust me when I say I'm not just being picky. It is literally a wreck. I told them I no longer wanted them in my home. He came to me and told me they were done and asked me for the remainder of his money. Even saying they spent all 250 dollars in material. Remember-I had all of the materials. The only thing he purchased was two sheets of drywall and the fake baseboards. He told me his work was done. There is no way that a contractor would find this work acceptable. Maybe I can post pictures elsewhere and provide the link to show you the absolute mess created.

What do I do? Can I stop payment on the check and demand an itemized list for the materials? Should I take him to court? Should I just move on and hope someone else can fix it? I don't have a lot money left now becaus I kept feeding it to him. Should I go to the media and update them on the story they already have begun about this man?

What are the options here. How hard is it to fix a horrible drywall and mud job once it has already been painted over? Clearly I have to pull up the baseboard and put down real ones. What else can I do to fix this room???