Drywall...Check.

Except for just a few small spots, the drywall is finished.

Those two plywood areas are the recesses for shelves.  This is Tom's office.

We had the tape and bed guy scheduled to come on Thursday.  He's the same guy that did the tape/bedding when we remodeled the house.  I don't remember how much I complained about him at the time.  He does a great job, but he is incredibly unreliable.  Every other day he "couldn't" come to work for some reason or other.  He usually showed up around 10 or 11:00 in the morning and left around 3 or 4:00.

I hesitated to hire him because of that and we didn't want this job dragged out for weeks.  But, he kept calling me and practically begging me to let him have the job because he hadn't worked in ages and he was flat broke.  So we agreed that he would do the job for a certain amount, including the materials because that's another thing - he would say he needed a certain amount of materials and we'd buy them, then we'd have to buy more and more and more.  I thought he'd be more thrifty if he knew he had to pay for them out of his own money.  Since he was broke, he wanted to come get money from us to start the job and pick up the materials.  We definitely didn't want to just hand him money right before Christmas because we figured he go spend it on things he wanted and then not get he materials.  So, I found out what he needed and then went and bought them with the agreement that I would withhold that amount from his first payment.

He was very anxious to get started this week so he could earn some money "to live on" before Christmas.

So, Thursday morning arrived and at about 9:30 I got a text from him, "I'm not going to be able to come until tomorrow."  I texted back, "This is not a good way to start off."  He texted back, "Well, I got company that just showed up at my door at 7:00 this morning.  I've got to get them settled."  I texted back, "Do you need a job or do you need company?"  He didn't answer.

Tom was in no mood to be understanding.  This was just a taste of what was to come.  So he texted the guy, "Don't bother to come.  I'm hiring someone else."

Needless to say, that did not go over well with him.  The rest of the day was a barrage of calls and texts from him that got more and more unfriendly.  I didn't answer any calls and I only texted him once to tell him that this was not my decision and he needed to take it up with Tom.

He has used the "company just showed up at my door early this morning" excuse at least once before.  I mean, are these people driving all night to arrive early to a destination in which they have no idea if they'll have a place to stay?  He could have been out of town.  He could already have company and have no room for more.  He could have to go to work.  And how long would it take to get this company "settled"?  All day?  Can he not point them to the frig and say, "Help yourself.  I've got to go to work because I'm flat broke."?  Or are they the kind of people that he can't trust alone in his house?  So many questions.

So, now we are having to find a new tape/bed guy.  Work on apartment is stalled.