@DA RAIDERS
The laundry list of #### the contractor has done is a long one. The straw(s) that broke the camel's back came in the last week or so. We are really in the final stretch and he continues to have a labor problem. His best finish carpenter, who is a friend of his but a freelance sub and not an employee, is now on house arrest for violating a restraining order against his soon to be ex-wife. His other skilled guy is very nice and does good work, but it also a total flake.
The only guy who shows up regularly and works 8+ hours is a total moron. He is a 26 year old, unskilled, $15/hour moron. And our contractor has been having this idiot install door wraps with no real supervision. The quality of the work is horrific. And he has been pre-painting the door wraps with a damn foam roller. So not only is the fit and sizing awful, but the paint finish looks like alligator skin.
When I brought up these concerns to our contractor, the first thing he did was send me a budget update (which he hadn't done in months) and it was almost $50K higher than the last one.
I had a series of qualified people come through to look at the work and I explained what was going on to all of them. This group included a couple of master finish carpenters, a guy I know who owns a multi-crew professional painting company, and an older contractor who was recommended to me. They all said that the $15/hour kid is creating multiple hours of work for every hour he spends doing something more challenging than sweeping the floors.
Our project is at least 8 months behind the initial timeline and 6 months behind the more realistic one. It is horrifically over budget. And the final touches, which can make or break all the time, money and heart-ache we have invested, are on the way to looking like they were done by a high school shop class. At best. And during this project our contractor has taken two vacations, consistently left before 4 pm to coach or play soccer, and never once worked a weekend.
The older contractor I mentioned earlier has offered to come on as a consultant to help us just get the project wrapped up. He said he feels like it will serve us best to work on that basis. He will work based on an hourly rate, help us arrange and vet subs, and oversee things generally and we'll pay the subs directly. I haven't said yes to that yet, but I am pretty sure it is the direction we are heading.