Broke down mine last fall and told my wife it would be a nice little afternoon project. Six hours later I was still sawing through a leg while she ate takeout without me. Seven hours sounds about right for a first timer, and honestly the cleanup took me another hour on top of that.

Does ice really matter if the eggs were just fresh?

That line about her handing you a punch list of 19 items, most of them added after you left, is the whole tell right there. I read a thread on a contractor forum a while back where guys said the biggest red flag is a client who keeps "remembering" extra work once you're already on site. The other one was a homeowner who swears everything is level or plumb already, because that usually means they either don't know or they're hoping you won't check. Three trips to the lumber yard for a crown profile change would have been my cue to run. Good on you for walking, some jobs cost more in sanity than they ever pay back.