[mjs00]

Is there a middle ground where you can hire someone to help polish/finish, but under his direction? Otherwise you will lose a lot of time onboarding someone as they figure out his code/approach w/o his full complicity. Also perhaps prune back things that aren't absolutely critical. The person you hire should be able to help on maintenance as well, hopefully.

You might want to make completion of this required before starting project two, as well review from both sides what will be different to help get project two across the goal line to see if there really will be a project two together.