Meanwhile the plumber had refused to continue work on that or the other two projects he was working on until he got paid his deposit for the new one, which he'd bought some supplies for on credit and so all three jobs were just sitting for two weeks while we waited endlessly for the lender to process the draw. 

He was excellent at job coordination, making sure the jobs came in under budget and on time and managing the bureaucracy that is government contracting; the endless progress meetings, inspections etc...