Oh my. LOL That is totally what I would do I'm sure... I don't know the correct answer but your guidelines of what you taped sounds reasonable to me. I don't think I've ever seen anyone put that many tape pieces up which means either you're being overly critical (which it doesn't sound like you are), or your painter was terrible. I'm sure there are others who will be able to give you more useful opinions about whether you're going overboard or not.

Lisa - Thanks for the reply.. We are getting a little nervous.. Builder says he will stop by to look but I really just don't know.. Part of me feels he is going to try and put this all off until their "followup" sessions.. We had them put into the contract that they will come out 2 times (withing 1 year) after delivery to fix any issues from settling.. And if that happens I have a feeling we will never see them again.. But after going through the house I almost feel that there is just so much stuff that they will basically be repainting the house.. I mean you can see in the pictures where there are straight lines of blue tape that is all nail pops from the same stud.. Basically every room looks the same with the blue tape.. I really don't think we were being too critical either.. We let a lot of stuff go.. But if the paint was cracked or there was a large nick/dent from someone or something hitting into it we marked it up.. As well as the other items I mentioned like missing paint or different color paint globs.. There were a few things that we marked up that may come off with a good scrubbing, but I wasn't about to scrub down all the walls.. I guess we will see.. I just didn't know if I was in the "right" as far as what the standard is for touchups prior to taking possession of the house.. Again, I know I have it in the contract to come back and touch up any settling issues, but I can't see them coming back when there is this much to touch up.. I don't know much about the costs for painting, but I would say that painting the house is probably a 10k job.. (based off figures on local contractor website).. If they did touchup everything they would have to hit relatively every wall with paint.. And not just a small section.. So I am thinking it will be costly to repair everything and worth it for them to not return..

Same kind of deal.

For me the ceiling on the main floor was the most egregious. You could clearly see the blotches in various different lights. I allowed them to touch up but when that made matters worse, I asked them to repaint the whole ceiling in all the public areas.

The other stuff.. we have nail pops too. I am waiting for the follow up.

They ended up repainting several walls as well. But honestly they could have repainted the whole thing. I don't get it.

The last day the project manager stopped by, he opened a door and scraped his huge man ring across the paint in the entryway. He pretended like that didn't just happen...and I let it go because I wanted him gone.

You paid for smooth painted walls. Get them.

It sounds more of drywall issues for the most part (obviously not the spatter part). I would point out that a couple things do happen after painting; one is that yes, you get dings and scratches from all the final stuff (flooring, etc), and different light will reveal some imperfections you wouldn't notice at other times.

Deep scratches UNDER the paint, cracked corners, and screw dimples are all drywall issues, though.

What did you specify as the drywall finishing standards in contract? Because in that final picture the mud joint is pretty plainly visible.

Ichabod - I get that they are drywall issues.. But they are still areas that need touchups.. if it is mudding or taping issues they still need to be fixed.. How? I have no idea.. Cost? No idea.. Time? No idea.. The painter spent a good amount of time in house sanding walls with a brush and I believe he had put something on top of a few nail pops.. So I dont know if he was "in charge" of going over everything or what.. But in the end I feel that I have a right to clean and smooth walls.. Take a look at the pictures below.. That is my staircase going down to my soon-to-be finished basement.. How, as a builder, do you even allow this?

Bry911 - I have to double check but that might be a lighting issue.. I recall seeing something on that wall (not sure if it is what wife has in picture) and it turned out it was due to lighting position with railing.. Honestly (our beginner mistake) we did not "specify" a drywall finish standard.. We were under the impression that drywall finish was standard throughout.. I didn't realize there are various degrees of finishing for drywall.. If I recall correctly the guys that did all the taping and mudding made 3 trips in total.. They had to wait X amount of days and then came back.. Again, I believe it was three trips.. I was told that it was to let what they did settle.. Not sure if that helps in determining what level it might be.. Below is a picture prior to priming.. Again, not sure if it helps in determining what level they used..

In one of the custom homes I built under Ontario's mandatory warranty programme, the homeowners filed a 50-page list of so-called defects, 99% of them for the paint. Even after some walls had been repainted two and three times, they were not satisfied with the finish. (They had rejected a Level 5 drywall job and insisted on dark satin paints.) The inspector allowed them a repaint of the front exterior doors (they had insisted on oil, then shut the doors before they were fully dried) and suggested I cut them a cheque for a couple hundred dollars, as that's what they really wanted.

With respect, I can't tell anything from the pics other than it appears to be a Level 3 finish. Under our warranty programme, screw/nail pops are not warrantied. As a courtesy, many builders will repair them after a year, but not repaint.

What would say a level3/ 4 drywall finish and paint spec look like?

Our walls looked about like that after the first coat of paint. Our painter primed, sanded, and painted one coat of paint, we then marked and fixed all the bad spots, (the painter caught most of them before we looked at it) he patched the spots, sanded primed and put a coat of paint the spots, then he sanded everything, and painted the final coat. We still have some minor areas that need fixing, but you really have to look.