It’s About Time Construction

When my wife and I purchased our house last September, we hired Gilbert (the proprietor of It’s About Time Construction) to paint the interior and perform a number of handy-​man fixes before we moved in. To quickly summarize our experience, we were generally unhappy with the quality of work and his ability to communicate with us about delays or other problems, and we would not hire him again.
We obtained three estimates for the work, and even though Gilbert was the most expensive, he was the only contractor we met in person. He seemed to have a lot of experience and a trustworthy personality. We asked him to revise his estimate to be more competitive with the second highest estimate – which he did – then he drafted a contract which we signed.
Gilbert often took much longer to complete tasks than he originally estimated. The interior paint was originally to be completed in 10 days, with the remainder of the work to be completed before the end of October (less than 4 weeks). In reality, the interior paint took more than 3 weeks, and the remainder of the work specified in the contract took more than 2 months to complete. Gilbert provided reasons for most every delay, and some reasons were better than others (he stopped work to construct a fence for another client; the paint supplier improperly mixed a batch of paint and he had to stop work while he convinced them to replace it; there were one or two rainy days; his truck was in the shop; a close relative was ill). But as weeks continued to pass we became more and more frustrated.
A couple of interior doors had been damaged while Gilbert’s crew were painting (someone sat on a stack of doors and the doorknobs punctured a hole). Gilbert said he would replace the damaged doors, but he has not.
After he finished painting, we had to ask Gilbert to come back and touch up several areas that were overlooked (in some cases, his crew would fail to spray a large section of wall several feet in length). He often left unpainted shadows around towel racks and toilet paper roll holders, and we eventually decided to remove those fixtures on our own and put a proper coat of paint behind them.
One positive thing I can say about Gilbert is that, with the exception of a few stray brush strokes, he did an excellent job sanding and repainting the balcony deck.
We have tried to contact Gilbert many times after January 1^st (which was when he promised to return our key and repair the doors); but he has not answered his phone, returned our voicemail, or replied to our email.