contractors not performing

[Russ Trimboli]

i made a mistake and trusted a contractor ( who had been helpful in the past on a previous project) and signed a contract for work to be done without a kill date

it was about 2 weeks worth of work and he gave me a good price

that was 3 weeks ago and he isnt even half way done

i like him but this is business

hes disappeared on a couple of occasions and has not returned calls

ive warned him that if he doesnt move forward and finish im going to start giving away portions of his work but i suspect at this point hell point out we have a contract

hes affecting my bottom line here and ive got to get this on the market asap

is there an implied performance aspect here ?

ive saved all our texts nd there are several texts of him promising the work to be done and verbally it was all going to be done by feb 1

i made the mistake of trusting him because he performed admirably once before with less work but this is getting problematic

he essentially hasnt done more than an hours worth of work this week

he cited his wife being in the hospital but this is the second family member this has happened to in 3 week

technically hes been on the job for a month

ive paid him approx 2000 already and hes done that much work ( or at least put in that much time--hes very slow and deliberate )but now everything else  hes started but nothing is completed

im going to have to hire someone to start and finish all his incomplete work and dont feel i owe him any more money

what is my best move here ?