Doggy Dream Homes

Dave Sullivan was hired to replace my siding, windows, and gutters and to repaint my house in late September, 2008. He took a long time to do this work having multiple illnesses, injuries and other personal problems that came up during the work period. When the weather got too cold to paint he stopped work. We had developed a friendly relationshop and I understood that he was having money issues so I paid him in full expecting he would return as soon as possible to finish. I had sensed no reason not to trust him. He seemed like a very honest person and so did his partner. When late winter and early spring arrived there were a couple times we talked about finishing the work but it was always at a time when I judged the weather would not hold up long enough to both complete the work and give the paint enough time to cure before the temperature would be below freezing again so I requested that he hold off. There were many times when the weather was warm enough to finish painting but he put it off saying he had to work on jobs that paid because he had major bills to pay off and a house payment to keep up. I asked him to at least get the gutters installed. I asked him this at least three times. Each time he said he would call his gutter man and get it done right away. I finally was given the name of this man and spoke with him myself. He told me Dave had not called him but would come do the work that week. He did. He started the work and then phoned me to ask who would be paying him. I told him I had already paid Dave for the gutters. He expressed concern about getting paid for the job given Dave's personal problems. As it was a very rainy period and my foundation had already developed one crack I was very concerned about getting gutters on my house. I told the gutter guy to go ahead and put them on and if necessary I would pay him and collect the money from Dave myself. I was concerned about his filing a mechanic's lien on my house if he did not get paid for the work. As it turned out that is what I did. I paid him thinking Dave would pay me within the 30 days he said he would have paid the gutter guy. I told Dave I had paid him and why and that I fully expected to be repaid. I asked Dave when he expected to finish the rest of the work and got another earful of his personal problems. I told him that I was very sorry he was having so much difficulty but needed to get the work done. I asked him for the money back that I had paid him so that I could hire another guy to finish. I asked him how long he thought it would take to do the last bit of work and he said two days at the most. I told him that if he could not finish the work that I wanted to be repaid the wages I had paid him. He and his partner had been paid $20 each per hour so I figured for two 8 hour days that was $640. The bill for the gutters was $1215. The total I am owed is $1855. I asked him for some collateral till I was repaid and he told me I still had