Thanks very much for your replies.

I sent an email to the company president, who was the person who provided the estimate and was my contact person before the work began. (I actually planned to draft the email tonight, sleep on it and then possibly edit it tomorrow, but I accidentally hit the send button, so I'm committed. Note to self: don't enter anything in the To: box until you're ready to hit send.)

The company was highly recommended by someone who has worked with them in the past, so I'm hoping that I will not have a problem getting them to come back and fix the sloppy work. I have some plastic dropcloths here which I will use to cover the furniture myself.

In the meantime I'm moving ahead planning subsequent home improvment projects -- someone came today to measure my windows for new honeycomb shades, I scheduled an appointment to get an estimate for new hardwood floors and will be calling a second flooring company on Monday, and I picked up some sample tiles and paint for the bathroom renovation. I'm frustrated by the painters but remaining optimistic that all will turn out okay in the end.

Thanks again!