Painting Expenses

It happened. Just as I anticipated it would. Clearly a no-win situation.

I finally was able to get E to give me a price on the cost of painting my house with the "friend discount".

Let me clarify that from the beginning, I could never get him to give me a quote on painting the house. I didn't want to paint the house myself, I had done that some years ago and didn't want to do it again; however, minimizing the cost I would do what I could to not hit the pocket book too hard. E is a painter on the side, with over 20 years of full-time painting under his belt. I know that he does an excellent job, I've seen his work.

While E is a nice man, he isn't trustworthy, to me. So I'll chalk that up to my own personal trust issues. The painting of the house started exactly one month ago. He told me to get several quotes and to pay him what I felt was "fair" if I wanted to, but as a friend he didn't want to charge me at all. Throughout the painting he has joked about his fees being too expensive or being too cheap. He's made comments that if I wasn't dating someone the cost would be less if at all. Three days ago I received an email from him that we needed to talk cost.

I did get a quote on the house. The quote included all the prep - scraping, patching and painting of the house and garage, labor only for $1710 and the job completed in six days. Yes, six days. And that didn't include me doing a thing!

I figure that I did all the scraping of the house and an additional 10-12 hours of painting on the house. So I was shocked this morning when I was told that if he were to charge "someone else" it would be "32-35". Dollars or Hundred? Hundred! So he said $2000 would be good. I freaked out!

I could have paid $1710 and had the house completely painted in six days and not had to lift a finger. The house as it is, was scraped by me - clearly not a professional painter by any means! There was no patchwork done. I helped and it took five times as long and is going to cost more with the friend discount?

Needless to say, I was pissed. I had asked since before the project started for a price and never got an answer. He continues to say "It's not about the money." and that I can just give him $500.

Now I feel like a real jerk. I don't want to screw my friend out of money, but I feel completely taken advantage of and in a predicament. Mind you, the back side of the garage isn't even painted! I did ask how many hours he had put into the house and he said 42, which I don't believe as he was hardly ever there but even if he was, he's trying to say he would charge "over $81 per hour for a non-friend! He even said yesterday that a painter will usually charge $25, $40 or $48 per hour but, "I'm a cheap painter!" I had also confirmed that good painters in the area will charge between $30-35.

So had "a good painter" spent 42 hours on my house it would have cost me $1470, plus materials (which I purchased). I guess it's just a matter of principle. So do I pay $500 or do I pay more knowing that he wants and feels justified in it being more and because as a friend I should?

Remind me again why I should EVER mix friends and business?