Perspective is Everything

It is interesting the reality others (and ourselves) live in. I hired a guy, let's call him Ernie, who has built houses, has a lot of expertise, and has, for the last several years, been hired by me to do work on our home. He's laid tile and painted, mostly. While the work he does is very good, my beef is that he typically works 2-3 hour days, dragging his projects way out. This encroaches on my other plans by doing so, I've had to cancel all sorts of dinner engagements etc and he doesn't seem to get that. Additionally, it makes it a real challenge to assess exactly how long he really worked on x project, as his 'labor' is supposed to be $50.00 per hour. Next, he does not seem to be able to include, in his quote, the full scope of what he might get into on x project. Lastly, he has never failed to run into something more involved than what it appeared to be initially, therefore, the end result is that he quotes one price, then actually charges alot more. This can be both understandable in some instances, and budget and patience buggering in others. The day I decided never to hire him again, when my brain finally snapped, was recently over some wood rot on our front columns. The columns were originally finished out and painted. Ernie looked and advised he could repair the columns for $500.00. I hired him making me his boss. The day he showed up to begin the work, the price tripled with the explanation that he (as always) found the work to encompass more than he originally bargained for. As he went to work, he found materials that looked like wood but would be impervious to rot, matched everything up and did a lovely job as far as it went. But at just over $1400.00, triple the original quote, he suddenly tossed re-painting the columns back my way and I am just done. Sure, we talked. He went from "Well, if I SAID I'd paint, then I will, to backing out once more, because if he painted he'd be "working for free" to saying he'd do the top half once I got the lower half (The part I could reach myself) done. It did not matter that I felt the top half should be done first (to avoid paint dripping down below on the other colours we were doing at the base). It did not matter the columns were painted before so I expected his repair to include repainting. In the end, he demanded his money and left the job unfinished....unpainted. With layoffs rampant and so many people I know looking for work, the funniest is how Ernie kept saying if he painted the columns he'd be "working for free". What I saw was it took him from 2/17 until 3/7, taking 7 days off the job and working a max of 4 hours at any given time. I don't even wonder how my boss would feel if I only did a portion of a project assigned to me brilliantly but then stopped, explaining that to do any further work would mean that I'd be working for free. I already know that the next project I'd be working on would be looking for work...elsewhere...just like Ernie is now.