Ronald Willard Murphy

The problems started immediately. It became obvious that the scope of the work was more than either side anticipated and that other tasks would have to be completed. We had no problem paying extra and both sides agreed to continue and try to meet in the middle. We originally hired Ron based on a recommendation from several people my wife knew through work. He was described as doing good work but having trouble finishing jobs. One person said, "He just doesn't finish." We went ahead because we thought we could keep things on target and everyone thought he did good work. We found out he was good at everything but painting. He brought in a friend to sand and we had to tell him to get rid of them because they spent three weeks kind of sanding. Ron did some sanding and when he started painting we realized he couldn't do the quality job we expected. We told him to continue with everything else and we would hire painters. Ron did very good carpentry work but was unreliable on showing up and never seemed to get things done. Everything was almost finished but never quite got there. The project was way over budget and had dragged on for months. Ron kept trying to turn himself into a paid weekly worker. I kept having to explain to him that he bid a job and, while he had done other work that was excellent, he had not done the two main jobs of painting (we had to hire someone) and tiling which he just couldn't ever get to. We had decided to find someone else and let him go but decided to talk to him one more time and see if we could get the project finished. He walked in and quit, saying he wasn't making enough money. This project--still not finished mind you--cost us way way more than the bid price and a hundred times longer than the bid time. I would not rehire Ron to do anything because he tried to leave us high and dry. If you hire him I suggest you do it for a specific job and pay him nothing until it is done. DO NOT hire him as a contractor