Just got done doing an equivalent amount of work in my own home, and wondering if I should have paid somebody else. I think not, not out of price consideration, but the risk involved. Newly re-finished wood floors, my fussy taste, my strange plan and then the boo boo factor that's out of my control. I will take the razor now to areas I am not happy with, where there are drips I didn't see before. Dotrust that if and when I pay there is a target in mind by the person pricing in terms of hours and aggravation. I would pay to get it done at $1700 if it were to my satisfaction, and it's hard to imagine me being pleased with less than perfect. I'd pay it, if it was good enough.

So are you saying you wouldn't pay if your neurosis didn't see the job as "perfect?"

Aye there's the rub! Like Slipcoverlady I would do it myself because I am also a fan of perfect =) If I believed there was a contractor who could do a better than average "slap up job" I would be willing to pay to save myself the time and effort - and never kid yourself that it takes A LOT of BOTH to do a proper job of painting - but the fact is even in new show homes I see the "okay" jobs as they are generally done and widely accepted. They're in business to make money, time is money and quality takes time. Quality is also not overwhelmingly appreciated by either side (painters or "paintees" as it were) from what I've experienced over the years.

Case in point is friends and relatives who rave about the awesome paint job they had done in their home, business, on theirs cars or on a piece of favourite furniture... and I have to bite my tongue to not ruin their joy by pointing out the chunks, chips, hairs, fuzz, scrapes, dings and even bare patches they haven't noticed - which are glaringly obvious to me. When you repaint something old and worn (and dull from dirt and grime ie; living & bedrooms) they always look 100% better than they did - even with a crappy paint job. That's because they now give a first impression of "clean" and clean always feels good.

But if your nature is to be clean, and to be careful and mindful of your surroundings, then someone coming in and slapping up a couple of coats of paint with all the gobby imperfections that come with having a "job done" as opposed to well done isn't going to make you feel good about your "newly painted" surroundings or the money you forked out to get it that way.

The point is, all of us need to have realistic expectations for what we want as an result and for what it truly requires to reach that point. For the original poster $1700 seemed outrageous, but maybe they just wanted the rooms to look cleaned up and less lived-in again. Slipcoverlady might consider $1700 a bargain if it meant she'd have her rooms done to her satisfaction - and I'd have to agree with her. I'm an artist, and a perfectionist - and I would have to charge myself twice that to do my own rooms - and I know me so I'd be getting a discount to boot!

Seems like $1000 + paint for that paint job is a good and fair price.
I live in Virginia and this is like a flat rate for this job. There is this guy hi paint many rooms of my house and hi is very good and retailer. Hi have good prices. And I trust this person like a friend. My wife and I have hidden cams in the house and we test this guy and we get surprised by his honesty . He just get to do his job. Hi is also a handyman .

If you are telling her to grab "trays" instead of rolling out of a 5gal bucket. You are not in any position to give here advice as a "professional paint contractor"