Update. The painters came back yesterday. Over the weekend I found many other issues in addition to the sloppy work around the trim, and I marked everything with bits of blue painters tape. The living room and hallway were full of them, while the bedroom only had a few issues.

Before the work had started, I had marked up the walls in the bedroom to point out the flaws that needed to be fixed -- holes and cracks to fill, nail pops, areas around outlets and light switches that were damaged when I removed the old switchplates which had been thickly painted over, etc. When they first showed up the crew leader started circling things to be fixed on the walls and he seemed to have a good eye, so I did not do the same thing in the hall and living room. Instead I only marked a few big things like holes in ceiling where plant hooks used to be. I think that was a mistake -- I should have gone full-on control freak and marked up everything that I wanted them to fix. This is what I did over the weekend.

So yesterday morning I walked around with the crew leader and pointed out various things that I had marked. I told him that I understood things would not be perfect since the walls were old, some of them are plaster, and the painters hired by the previous owners had just slapped a new coat over all the nail holes and chipped paint without trying to fix anything. Two walls in particular were really quite a mess. But I said that I hoped he would be able to fix most of it. I also said that I understood they were rushed last week due to the impending snow day, which was why I wanted them to neaten up the paint next to all the trim.

The fine print in the contract says that they are not responsible to damage to furniture, so I haven't brought that up again. Last week I had hung plastic drop clothes in the closets to protect everything in them from dust, and had also hung a plastic drop cloth across the kitchen door to keep that room clean. Yesterday morning I got up extra early so I'd have more time to cover things. I spread a plastic drop cloth over the bed (on top of of the comforter, pillows, pajamas etc) and tucked it in all around so it would all be protected. Then I wrapped plastic around the love seat and fabric chair in the living room. I don't care about the rug, since I plan to get rid of it in the next few weeks. I will vacuum tonight and will spend the weekend wiping down all the wood furniture. After the new floor is installed I will have the living room furniture steam cleaned. Unfortunately I'll also have to buy one of those furniture touch-up pens because they scratched my black bookcases. (They also gouged the top of one dresser -- seriously I don't understand how they caused so much damage.)

The good news is that things now look great. Not perfect, because as I said some of the walls were really a mess and I understand there's only so much you can do with an old home. But overall I'm happy with it. And the big lesson I learned was that it's better to be a crazy control freak in managing this type of work.

Now the question is -- how do I keep the next round of contractors from trashing the place? I think I will buy a big roll of bubble wrap and tape it up along all the corners and door frames for protection.

By the way the wall colors are "Salty Brine" (green) in the living room and "Alpine" (light blue) in the bedroom, both from a paint manufacturer called C2. And they are beautiful. They look nice by lamplight, and I really love them in daylight.

On to the new hardwood floors...