woodpassion wrote:
Long story short~ Remodeled basement for longtime friends, including
tearing out of old paneling glued to cinder block walls, framed,
drywalled, replaced windows, and hauled all the debris away. Said
friends didn't even offer to buy my sandwich when they ordered out for
lunch on several ocassions while I was slaving away in their basement.

Wow, that is a mamoth job to do, especially if they just sat on their
asses the whole time and did not help. They could've at least helped
you hang the drywall or haul away the debris.

I'm sure you did a great job. But now these friends are thinking "How
can we get this sucker to do more, and Cheap?"

Tell them you don't have time to do this job. Even if you need the
money badly, there's easier ways to make money. This job will destroy
what's left of your friendship. They treated you like a slave when you
were working for free. Can you imagine how miserable you'll be doing
this when they're paying you. Oh yeah, they will screw you over on the
fees. That's why they are asking for an hourly rate and a max hours.
I'm sure they'll add a lot of extra tasks on, and still expect you to
only charge the max hour rate.