AED Construction

Review: On 12/22 we signed a contract with AED Construction ([redacted]) with a promise that he would complete our basement in a home which we purchased at [redacted] in 5 weeks. He pleaded that he "needed" payment each week in addition to his **% down for materials to get the work done. We gave him the **% and paid him the $[redacted] for the first 3 weeks - he had done another job for us and we trusted him. After each week, we expressed concern about his lack of working hours - he missed a minimum of 2 days per week each week plus at least 2 days that he was there under 2 hours - after week 3 we insisted that he have all materials on hand which we purchased (clearly stated $[redacted] for materials) in the contract and told him that we were expecting him to work a full week in order to receive payment. This past week, he missed work Monday and Wednesday and was gone before 3:30 on Thursday. On Friday, after we threatened via email not to pay him because he did not work this week and did not purchase the materials as we had insisted, before 3:00, he cleaned out his tools and left the site before we could even discuss the situation. He has only purchased approximately $**0 in lumber and $[redacted] in materials to this point - he received $[redacted]. The work he has completed is equivalent to that of what would be expected to be completed after 1 full week of work (he is not done framing what is to be a finished basement). We have attempted to contact him with numerous phone calls, texts, emails, proposed resolutions, etc., but he refuses to acknowledge our calls. We simply want him to complete the work and prove that the money which we gave him for materials has been spent on materials or is still available. We told him over the past few weeks that we needed to protect our investment and see the materials which we had purchased and store the materials on site as well as show up for 40 hours if he expected to be paid each week.Desired Settlement: We would like AED to purchase the materials which we have given them the money for and satisfactorily complete the job in a timely manner. If not, we are asking for a refund of the $[redacted] which we have paid him to this point.