Friends...

What would you do?

A friend comes to you and asks for your help building a deck. They are supplying everything, and even offer to pay you for your help. You accept, without hesitation. When you arrive to the "house" you find a half finished house with no siding, interior, etc. The "friend" points out that they will also need a front deck, and columns, and a fire place mantle, and your help hauling construction debris to the dump, and planters, and some painting, and moving all of their furniture. He looks at you and says, "Get to work!"

Did I miss something? Since when did "help" mean manual laborer? At one point in the last THREE weeks worth of 16 hour days, I said, "Wow, how much are you guys paying me?"

Him: "Um.. Well.. What do you want?"
Me: "Decks...How about a dollar a sq ft?"
Him: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That's pretty funny! No, seriously, how much?"
Me: "What do you think is fair?" Dumb Question....
Him: "Well, I talk to the wife.."

NEXT DAY
Him: "We talked. How about $500?"
Me: "For the decks.... Cool!"
Him: "No, for everything."

The lowest price he got for the deck was $8 per sq. ft. The painting was going to cost him $4500 alone, (and that was on the cheap! 30 doors and 3600 sq ft of house plus all the trim!) The rest...Who knows. He wants to pay me $500. Today, he says they want to renegotitate because I am taking to much time on the deck. It would have been done today. The thing is, everytime I go to work on it, he drags me off to some other pet project of his. Oh, and the decks? One is 10'x43' and 10 feet off the ground, the other is 10'x8' and in the middle of a mud pit.

After we loaded the SECOND 30 ft U-Haul truck (or what ever the biggest rental truck they had is,) he thinks he can get the rest with a 10 ft trailer.

What do you think? Keep plugging away? Or, tell him to fuck off?