Well, folks, I wussed out. I called the painter to tell him how unhappy I was with the lack of progress. I was ready to fire him. But he really wanted to finish the job, promised they would return on the following Monday (this was a week ago Thursday), and apologized for blaming me for the problems. I said OK, largely because I couldn’t get another painter that quickly. His crew returned, as promised, and the job is almost done now. They do nice work. The problem was that this job has special requirements due to my health issues. I explained this from the start and he seemed OK with it, but he proved to be rather inflexible. He’s used to doing things a certain way, using certain paints, and flatly refused to do some of what I asked. It was one battle after another. I am sooo glad it’s almost done.