There was still no progress made the next week. So I made it a point to stop by every other night to remind him that his schedule was running out and nothing had been done in over a month. The next weekend he was working when I got there. One wall of the living room had been roughed in and he looked to be well on his way on a second wall. Unfortunately they decided to have a 12 pack break after I left and that’s all the got done that week.
The progress continued at a very slow pace for the next two months. (Yes months) The kitchen, living room, and one bedroom where roughed in and some of the seams had (sort of) been sanded.

In the mean time he asked for a second advance that I reluctantly paid. I made sure to let him know that I was unhappy with the progress and that I expected more effort in the future. That weekend he was too hung over to work. I was NOT happy!

Two weeks later the second bedroom had been roughed in and the living room and kitchen was pretty much sanded. I did not see them working and he was not at home when I stopped by. My renter said that he was spending time at his ex-wives’ house and he had only seen him for a couple hours that week.

The next week the parts of living room walls had been texture sprayed and the second bedroom had been sanded. The spray job left a lot to be desired. Not only was the spray extremely patchy but the overspray was everywhere. The front of the black painted fireplace looked like it had broken out with a severe case of whiteheads. Even the windows where speckled with little white bumps.

I tried calling him but his phone had been turned off. And for the next three weeks he didn’t show up as far as I could tell. I asked Mark, the man who rents the rear of the house to have him call me as soon as he sees him.

About a week later I get a call from him saying that he had been working in the south part of the state and he was back to work now. He also asked for another advance. I let him know (in a nice way) that I was not going to give him any more cash till I saw more progress. He either didn’t show up or didn’t do any work for the next month.

Well I called three professional companies to give me estimates on finishing the work and doing the ceiling. It was done two weeks later. Everything was done well and I was happy with the results. The only thing that they did not fix was the three inch gap in the second bedroom where the sheet rock did not reach to the floor. They said that they could take care of that also but that it would require removing the bottom panels all the way around and replacing them. The other option would be to use base molding to cover it. I was told that this was done extensively with new home builders. I chose the molding over the additional expense.