Everything's gone sideways suddenly

Not much has been done this week. They painted on Tuesday outside, and at the end of the day told me they'd be back Wednesday to finish. No one came by at all on Wednesday.

On Thursday morning, Joel measured the closet in the bathroom in order to build the drawers, said they'd be making them at Sean's place, and that they'd return in the afternoon. I gave Joel a list of everything that still needs doing -- about 40 items -- and included a statement that we're not happy with the paint job so far and want to split the cost of hiring a professional painter to come in and fix it. Sometime later that day they dropped off the fence gate, but didn't install it and didn't come in or announce themselves or anything. On Thursday afternoon, Sean sent an email (which I didn't see until today) stating in part that he just thinks the paint job needs touch ups and that he "will not participate in hiring another painting company." In one part of the letter he says they will get to the to-do list "once the balance of our materials arrive" and in another part that he wants to "resolve these issues before the balance of the work is completed."

Judging by the fact that they didn't show up today, either, I'm a little worried. We're at 95% complete here, and he's already been paid (slightly) more than the original quote. We started a letter in response to his but haven't sent it yet. I'm getting the impression that his nose is out of joint over the paint issue, which is kind of silly.

Yesterday, before receiving his note, I called three paint companies to come in and give me a quote on how much it'll be to fix it. One came over right away and quoted $2500 on the spot, the second came today and will deliver a quote this weekend but says to expect it to be in the $5000 range. The third company hasn't phoned me back yet. The two that came in were both pretty much on the same page - it can't be fixed with touchups, it needs to be fully repainted to look good.