My wife Dawn and I had been in our second house for a little over 15 years and decided it was time to get our master bathroom renovated, with all new everything. We hired a local firm to do a minor design and construction of our new master bathroom. The process took a while and we were looking forward to the beginning of construction. There were two guys in the main construction crew, and they were going to be the ones that did the demolition of what was currently there, and the re-construction of the new bathroom. They’d bring in other craftsmen as necessary.

The one guy Jeff (as he was introduced) was the leader of the crew, and the second guy Braden was younger, more buff and was a hard worker. The whole process of demolition took a couple of days as they were replacing everything in the room.

My wife and I were kept up to date each day before they left for the day, they would go over what they had completed for the day, what was on tap for the next day and how much longer they had. After a couple of days of demolition, they reviewed with us the work that they had completed thus far, and showed us again the completed demolition work, although we didn’t really need to review it as we could clearly tell what they had done.

Dawn was quite impressed with the care Braden was taking with things in the demolition process, as well as the care he was taking to get things done. She was not as impressed with Jeff as much. That said, they proceeded to get things ready for the new buildout and installation. Now this contracting company explained to us that they do not finish painting, and they would leave the bathroom in a paint ready condition.

We didn’t realize this is pretty normal for most contractors in our area when remodeling a bathroom or kitchen. That said, Dawn had spoken at one point to Jeff and Braden about the painting, and Jeff suggested that he thought Braden would be open to doing the painting in his off hours after the job was completed. Dawn decided then to speak to Braden about doing the painting of the room during his off hours and that he’d be paid, and asked what he’d charge to do that painting. He answered with what seemed like a very reasonable amount for the paint work.

Once all the connections were done, Braden and Jeff started laying the floor down in the bathroom and the thresholds were put into place and a final walkthrough was performed. So as mentioned Dawn had spoken to Braden about the painting after the completion. It was agreed that weekend he’d start painting the room. On that Saturday, about mid-day Braden showed up, after Dawn and I had gone to the local big box retailer to purchase said paint.

He took great care to tape things off so as to not get paint where it wasn’t supposed to be, like around the lights, and the window. Dawn was very happy with the care he took in taping things off and taking care of not getting paint where we didn’t want it. He took his time and by that evening he had completed his taping, and had started painting the ceiling first. He suggested to us that he’d be able to return the following day, and get the ceiling completed. Sunday when he arrived ready to paint about mid-morning, he stated to Dawn that he’d be able to get the ceiling completed but probably would not get to the walls.

Dawn had spoken to him about how much we owed him for his work for these two days and paid him with a check. Braden stated he could come back after his work day was completed at the company he worked for to get started on the walls. We agreed, and that Monday evening he showed up at around 5 o’clock to begin painting the walls. At about 9pm that evening he was wrapping up for the evening, let us know that he was not complete with the walls just yet, and he could come back tomorrow evening at about the same time. Dawn agreed, but mentioned that I might not be there as I typically worked from the office on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Typically I wouldn’t make it home until just after 5pm, and this was a typical day, as I pulled into the driveway just after 5pm to see Braden’s car in the driveway as well.

He apparently was able to get there just after 4pm that day and was already working on painting the walls. Again about 9pm he was finishing up the evening and suggested he could come back once again the following day to finish up the walls. We agreed, and again Dawn advised him I’d not be there, and she wouldn’t be home until after 3pm, so he agreed to not show up before contacting her to make sure she was home.

Once again upon my arrival home that Wednesday, Braden’s car was once again in the driveway, and when I entered, Dawn stated that he was upstairs finishing up the painting of the walls.

After he had left, Dawn and I talked about other things she’d like to have him take care of around the rest of the house, for instance she wanted the dining room repainted, since it had been a few years since that had been done, also she had a new ceiling light that she wanted him to install, and some new interior doors installed and painted. She suggested that he was doing good work and was not even charging us what his work was worth.

I then asked her what things he should do next, and she said, “Yeah I want to make sure to keep him busy so we don’t lose him.” So she told me, “I think next up should be the re-painting of the dining room.”

On that next day, Thursday, I worked from home, and at about 4pm Braden showed up to do some additional touch-up painting upstairs, and once completed he asked Dawn, “What did you think was next?”

She began to explain to him that she had a few things, explaining she wanted the dining room repainted, and that was probably next on his list of things to do. He looked over the dining room to estimate how much paint was needed and told us, “We’ll probably need 3 gallons of paint for this room”, then asked “Are we looking at the ceiling too?” He then looked at Dawn to see what she was thinking.

She replied, “Yeah, let’s do the ceiling as well.” As she looked his way and then mine.

He then said, “Okay so about 3 gallons of paint for the walls, and another for the ceiling should do it, unless you’re painting the walls a lighter color, then you’ll want to pick up a couple cans of primer, that should do it” He looked over to Dawn and I as he said this, and then asked, “When do you think you’d be able to get the paint for this?” Again looking at Dawn and myself for an answer.

Dawn finally replied, “We can certainly pick up whatever we need this weekend, unless you want to work this weekend.” With that she looked over at Braden, to see his reaction.

He replied, “That’s fine, I have some other things to take care of this weekend anyway, let me get a list for you of what you need.” With that he started looking around and making mental notes, but was calling things out loud, “paint, rollers, tape, brush or two, let’s see what else, that should be about it, I guess” and turned to us and repeated exactly what he was calling out during his mental note. “You’re going to need paint obviously, whatever paint you want to use, I’ll need a couple of rollers, painters tape, the brushes I have, so don’t worry about those, and that should be it.”