A Rant on Home Improvements

My husband and I have completed a lot of home improvement while living in our house for the past 6 years.  We first redid the kitchen---new tile floor to replace the linoleum, new honey maple cabinets to replace the white stock ones, new back splash, and of course new paint to replace the hideous green color that once covered the walls.  We built a huge deck to replace our relatively small square one.  We redid our guest bathroom that was almost painted white, ugly floors, and a pedestal sink.  We painted it a green/grey color, put in a new vanity with a new mirror, and replaced it with a really neat green and brown earthy tile.  Now we did all these ourselves, but we've also hired people to do jobs as well.

And here's where my rant comes in...I know you were just wanting to know!  We paid to have our cathedral ceiling and living room painted.  That went pretty well with no issues.  We replaced our roof the first time (we had hail damage and had to do it again a year later) and that went pretty smoothly.  But when it came to getting our hardwood floors refinished, we ran into some issues...and there are definitely some spots that I was unhappy with at completion.  But at that time I was 8 months pregnant and ready for it to just be done.  Then we had our deck painted after we finished building it.  We had to call the crew to come back to fix several spots they just missed painting.  They also almost didn't start the job due to the fact we had asked for them to sand out some rough spots.  Seriously?  It was pretty crazy, and the day they were supposed to start they didn't because of this issue.  I was probably almost 9 months pregnant at this time.  I kept thinking can't we catch a break? 

Now we are having new siding put on our house.  And here we go again!  We went through Lowe's and then of course they contract it out to someone they use.  This is where the fun begins.  Some of our materials are missing and some are the wrong color.  We told the contractor...we told the Lowe's guy...we've told the crew.  Guess what they put up yesterday?  The wrong color!  The contractor blames Lowe's, Lowe's guy says he didn't know we didn't get the right color and that the contractor never told him, and the crew says that the contractor actually told them to go ahead and use the wrong color.  Does the contractor think we are going to drop this kind of cash and not say anything?  Um, no!  We want it done right, and they are the professionals.  Why is it always a struggle to have someone take responsibility of the job instead of playing the blame game on everyone involved?  So at this point it looks like the contractor is lying since the crew and the Lowe's guy are telling the same story.  So at this moment they are still putting up the wrong color---and we can't get a hold of the contractor.  But we did talk to the Lowe's guy, and he says he is going to take care of it. 

Is it to much to ask to have someone to do their job?  It would be like when I was working in the finance industry and someone thought they had a certain financial product but instead it was totally different.  Of course you can't do that!  So why can't it be the same with home improvements?  Why does it seem more stressful to hire someone to do the work than when you actually do it yourself?  You would think if you were doing the hard work yourself that it would be more stressful, but actually I have found it worse when we are hiring someone else.

Do you have the same problem?  Is it to much to ask for someone to do the job right the first time?