The Furniture Man

I should have sent him on his way when he first showed up, but I thought maybe he just had some kind of disability. His face was moving all over the place as he spoke and he was twitching a lot. He slurred his words and couldn?t walk straight and his hands were shaking. He had trouble concentrating and couldn?t seem to add the numbers. Now I realize he is a drug user. He mentioned on the phone a couple of times that he takes drugs to relieve back pain and sometimes uses extra, of course by that time he already had my furniture. I explicitly explained the type of finish and color I wanted on both pieces. I like very dark woods. The table was a dark brown tone. The extender was in perfect shape I just wanted the table top to match the quality and color of the extender. Sadly the table had some water stains I wanted gone. The dresser had been painted an odd color, but again I told him I wanted it to be as dark as the dining table. The table had a very thick extremely shiny coat on it. The vanity also had a very thick protective coating on the top. I assume they were both some kind of lacquer or epoxy. Steven Lee promised they would come out looking perfect. He showed me a photo album with samples and there were a few pieces that had the kind of finish I wanted so I thought he would do a good job. Well when he delivered the pieces, he had not finished putting everything back together. Handles were still off the drawers and he forgot to even bring them. He lost the screws and bolts for the table. The chairs which he was only supposed to re-glue had tons of scratches and dents all over them ? I assume from the clamps he was using. He didn?t put any kind of clear coat to protect the wood. He also made both pieces a weird reddish color as opposed to the dark brown I asked for. And the extender which didn?t even need any work he stripped and it is also the flat dull ugly red. Now the dining table doesn?t match the buffet or the china cabinet or the chairs. The vanity looks ok, but is now flat looking with no shine and I am afraid to use it as there is nothing to keep the wood protected. He claims there are five coats of something, but again, the wood still looks raw and looks as if it gets the slightest wet it will stain not to mention scratch easily. Instead of offering to fix his mistake he yelled at me and said that no dining table in the world had the type of finish I was describing and that the finish he gave me was the best there is. He also said that the type of finish that was on the dining table and the vanity had been added and weren't original. I couldn't argue about the vanity because I didn't know the complete history, but I knew the table as it had been in the family since it was new in the 1950's. I am now going to have to find someone else and pay to have all pieces fixed.