Are All Contractors Lame?

It has been approximately one month since I started a fire in my kitchen. Since that time the contractors who have been working in my home have stolen (food) from me. They have lied to me and attempted to cheat me out of money. The latest fiasco involves my living room, which had minor smoke damage that was supposed to be cleaned. But, the soot wouldn't come off entirely so the contractor opted to paint the entire room instead.

First they took the liberty of deciding that brown was a good color for my ceiling even though white was my instruction. My guess, the white paint can was empty, the brown was full. Another run to the paint store or a brown ceiling? They didn't think I'd care.

Second, the color we originally painted our walls is unavailable so we picked the closest possible match which is only slightly different. The contractor promised on three different occassions that the walls had received TWO COATS. Our walls have never received an entire coat and that's obvious because flaws that we left in our original paint job remain and color changes between the original and the new paint (where they did touch up work to cover soot) also remain. They must think I'm really stupid!

And, now to top it off, I called the contractor's buff. Told him that I didn't want him working in my house anymore since he's trying to shortcut this job and leave my house in disrepair. He told me that I'm trying to cheat him out of money that he's earned!! Is it possible to earn money by doing a half fast job? Should I let him back in my house to paint the living room and fix the other mistakes that remain? Should I pay him for the work that he has so clearly done poorly? Why do I have to work with morons?

Wish I was still on vacation! I'll post some cute pictures of that soon... Henry LOVED the ocean.