I completely agree with you jrldh. I told them that, I asked to speak to the supervisor and I was put on hold and then told supervisor wasn't there. I KNEW she would say that, and just didn't have the energy or mindframe to call her out on it. sue36, you are right. I will take that approach when I call them again.

quote" And the bad part from an owner's perspective is that you have lien recourse while we're just screwed. "quote If you don't pay, I (the GC) have the right to not only Lien against your property but also have right to sue you to pursue a Judgment against you because you were in a direct Breach of Contract because there is an Agreement(contract) between us that was not fulfilled on your end. If I neglect to pay a sub for services rendered, even though I was paid for his service's, he only has the right to pursue you for a Lien. Since there's no direct Agreement between you and him it is simply Implied that he's due compensation for his services, and since the GC didn't pay he can only Lien, he can't pursue a Judgment against the Property Owner. If he made me sign an Agreement for the service at a job of mine and I didn't pay, he could pursue me for a Judgment too. In 15 years of Mechanical Contracting I never had a builder sign a Agreement. I now have several Subs, who thanks to scoundrels within the industry, make their Builders sign a contract on each individual job. Over the past 15 years the only Sub who has always done this is my Granite man. This guy was burned by home builders so many times in the late 80's and early 90's that I was amazed that he was able to stay in the game. This guy is awesome and didn't deserve it just as equally as the subs who worked for pool builders that didn't get paid too. My concrete guy got burned by a pool builder named Bruce, who was confused on a thread with a good Bruce here a few months back, for 55000 over the course of 7 months and 10 unpaid jobs. He confided in me that he had to leverage an equal amount against his business line of credit to just stay in the game. It took him over 150000 in new invoices to rebound back to zero. This, my internet friends, means that he did 200000+ of work for free because he didn't follow protocol on these unpaid invoices. It Heartbreaking to everybody involved except the pool builder. just-a-pb quote" He did this with 20 to 30 contractors on many homes he was building. "quote If these subs had gotten together they could have formed a class action suit and pursued criminal charges of Intent to Defraud against the home builder. The only times I've ever seen builders go to jail is when the ripped off customers and/or the unpaid subs got together and pursued the GC as a Class Action (group) suit. This year 3 pool builders were arrested and Indicted on these charges. When this goes to court and the Jury hears that each of this men had several companies prior to these that did the same thing, I'm hoping they'll be sentenced to the maximum duration of incarceration. Deliberately collecting money with no objective of completion for the buyer or compensation of the service/supplies providor of the project, IMO and the interpretation of the law, is a criminal not a civil offense. See ya, Kelly

It's all resolved now. The GC was great actually. The weird thing were these swirls in the counter top (quartz) that looked like dirt. It was actually embedded into the counter. I think it was just defective and the fabricator didn't catch it. It was most noticeable when the lights were off and you view the counter from an angle. And the fabricator/installer just had no pride in their work. They left a mess in my sink, didn't even clean off the counter top after they installed it and they left my back door unlocked. They were seriously unprofessional.

We've (husband and I) done a LOT of work on multiple homes now and I completely agree with greg_2015. You do not need a GC to rip out carpet, do some painting and put up a railing or half wall. I would take out the carpet, first, to see what you are dealing with underneath. I have never paid anyone to remove old carpet/padding. We load it up on our truck and take it to the dump, ourselves. It's a bit of physical work, but it's not complicated. It's always interesting (and that's putting it mildly) to see what's underneath the carpet. If you've never seen what's on the back of used carpet, on the pad, and underneath the pad, be prepared to be shocked. If you don't want to DIY carpet/pad removal, just find someone you think is trustworthy and who has a strong back and a truck. Make sure you are insured, in case anyone gets hurt working on your home. Hopefully, you will be pleasantly surprised at what you find underneath the carpet. But, be prepared to be disappointed. Seriously, be prepared to find some bad stuff under there. A seller isn't usually going to peel up a corner of carpet where they know the floor is bad underneath. They're going to peel up a corner where the floor looks good underneath. Be prepared for the worst, including hardwood that's totally ruined by pets. Whatever is underneath the carpet where the current railing is may help you to decide if you want to go with a half wall or another railing. I'd want the flooring people to come out, look at the job, give estimates, etc. after the carpet is gone. There are often surprises underneath carpeting. After the carpet is removed, your baseboards will probably then be sitting up too high (because the carpet was probably between them and the hardwood floors). So, I'd take off the baseboards. If they come off well, and are in good condition, you can reuse them (if you want). If not, you'll want to replace them. Whatever the case, don't put baseboards back on until the floors are fixed. We do our own baseboards and we've never hired anyone to do them. If you cannot or do not want to DIY, ask the flooring people if there's anyone they'd recommend. But, don't put baseboards back on until the floors are done. While I was waiting for the floor people to come do the floor, I'd start painting (this is when you could get the painter to come out, if you want to hire someone to paint). Like someone else mentioned, you may need to clean and prime the walls before painting. If you want a half wall, you can get someone to put up a half wall and texture it (or not, depending on what you want) at this point. Then, I'd paint that, myself, too, if it were going to be painted. Avoid getting a lot of paint on the hardwood floors if they're going to be refinished because that has the potential to cause gunked up sandpaper and make the floor people unhappy with you. I've painted in every house and apartment I've ever lived in and I do not think painting is complicated, especially in cases (like yours) where there are not vaulted ceilings. Then, the floor people can come and do whatever you want so far as the floors. If you want a railing, talk to the flooring people about when that can go in. If you want a stained railing, I would ask the flooring people if they feel comfortable doing the stain or if they could recommend someone to do it. After the floors were in, I'd put baseboards back and touch up paint (carefully, don't get it on the floors). If using painted baseboards, I paint them before putting them up, then carefully roll them a bit/do touch ups after they are installed. Coordinating this stuff just requires a bit of thought and patience, not a GC. I don't think homeowners should allow themselves to be so helpless that they need a GC to do flooring, painting and a railing. I'm sure that there are a fair amount of folks in construction that would benefit from homeowners allowing themselves to become so helpless, and who would like this to happen, but... Anyway, just start making calls and start talking to people you might like to hire. Find out what their schedules are like, when they could come, how much they would charge, etc. Take the carpet out first, so you can see what you're dealing with. You need to know, so you can decide if you can/want to refinish what's underneath or decide that you need new flooring. Be prepared to live on what's underneath the carpeting for a while, because the flooring people may have busy schedules.