Better News

Even in light of our recent scary news, I'm still excited about the replumb (which starts Monday and should be finished by Saturday). It means that I no longer have to worry about our sub-standard pipes bursting and causing tens of thousands in damage. Plus, it means that we can then move forward with finishing the master bathroom!

We have 98% of all supplies needed already purchased and paid for. The contractor built out the new tub deck the other day and will be coming back to finish the shower when the plumbers are done. My husband is using his unexpected time off to do work we anticipated we would have to do in the evenings and weekends, which will speed things up. He put in our new fan/light combos above the new shower and toilet area yesterday. They look great and much quieter than the old unit we had before. The electrician is working as I type, putting in two new recessed lights in the ceiling, installing new GFI outlets, and repositioning the old vanity light outlets to their new location (to work with those bargain mirror/lights that I purchased for $25 each!)

Today, I am spending some time painting the new vanity feet (at first, we had planned to refinish the entire vanity, but then decided it would be easier/cheaper to go with the original finish (and we grew to love it). However, Mike had stripped the feet before we made that decision, so I need to restore them now. The base coat is done, but I need to experiment a bit to find the perfect combination/technique for putting on the grayish glaze that gives the vanity an antique look.

I'm also going to try my hand at cutting up our old mirror into two pieces that will fit the new mirror/lights (if you remember, the woman sold them because the original mirrors had broken). I feel quite confident that I can at least cut rectangles to size. I'm not sure about the curved cut that would be required for the corners -- but our local glass shop charges just $5 per cut, so they can always finish it up for me and the total cost would still just be $45 per mirror/light (a huge savings over buying them new at $150-$225). We're trying to reuse what we can and recycle the rest on Freecycle, Craigslist, or by donating to Restore (where all proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity).

When the electrician is done today, then we can put up the new drywall on the ceiling. I'm just trying to decide if I want to tape, mud, and texturize that ceiling or if we want to pay a bit extra to the plumber to have his drywall man do it for us. Hanging the drywall is labor intensive, but not difficult. However, we learned from past experience that the taping and mudding require a certain skill and we don't really have that skill. Plus, the texturizing we did on the walls during the remodel of the kitchen and other rooms (when we first bought the house) was kind of a nightmare. Neither of us really want to go there again if we can help it. However, I'm thinking that the ceiling is kind of a different animal. The taping and mudding do not have to be as exact, as the texturizing is heavier (and hides imperfections) -- plus, since the texturizing is done by hand (and I already have all those tools and got quite a bit of practice the first time around), I think I can do that job without too much frustration or difficulty. That would allow us to paint the ceiling and get the light fixtures put together and in place, even before the replumb is done. We can always have the plumber's drywall guy just tape, mud and texturize the walls for us -- which is the part we don't do as well. I just really want to see something "finished" in that bathroom. It's those little things that really keep me excited and motivated about finishing.

I know that Mike took some "before" pictures of the bathroom and has been taking some pictures as the job has progressed. Next time, I'll try to post some pictures so you can see for yourself how things are going.

Scary news

Mike called me at work the other day to let me know (before I heard it on the news) that all of the employees of his company had been "furloughed" without pay until further notice. Basically, the sale of the company to the new buyers has been taking longer than anyone anticipated. The great majority of the funding is coming from a Russian bank and the bankruptcy court wants to make sure (in light of current global economic troubles) that the bank is solvent and the funds are good. Because of this, the interim funding that the new buyers provided to keep the company running during the transition is quickly dwindling. They hope by having everyone but a skeleton crew go home, that they can conserve enough funds to keep things going until the sale is finalized. Then (they say) everyone can come back to work.

The same day this happened, we had several other businesses go under in our state, leaving around 2000 people without jobs/paychecks. The governor took action to help speed up unemployment benefits -- and apparently those employees in my husband's company who have been furloughed will be able to apply for unemployment benefits (even though they have not been technically laid off or fired). I'm not sure how that will work and I'm hoping its not even necessary, since the new buyers seem to think it's just a matter of days before things are finalized.

At my job, the president of the company issued an email to all employees, explaining that the company has lost $2 million more per month for the past two months than they had anticipated (which seems to indicate that MORE than $2 million per month was lost). Apparently, people are not going to get medical care as they used to and, if they do get care, they are less likely to pay. The president basically said that the company cannot continue to hemorrhage money like this and stay solvent. They are trying desperately not to lay off any employees, but that may not work. Of course, temporary employees like myself will be the first to go if things get worse. As it is, the past several weeks I've been told to go home when there are not enough providers in our office to keep everyone busy all the time. Of course, as I'm a temp employee, when I go home, that means I don't get paid for that time off. It's a particular concern now that my husband is also not getting paid.

We are hopeful that things work out for my Mike's company and that he is told to report back to work within the next week or so. In the meantime, I'm doing as much freelance work as I can and also asking to be flexed out to other departments within my company (if my department does not need me and some other department can use me). We've got a few major expenses coming up immediately that we had saved for -- but its scary to use those funds on the replumb and bathroom remodel when we don't know for sure that my husband will be employed or not. However, not to spend the money is not really an option at this point, as the bathroom has to be put back together and the replumb must take place or we will loose the option. Granted, we could not do the additional work (of continuing the replumb to the street) -- but we both agree it is a good investment for a future sale of the house (not to mention that the piece of mind that we will not have a leak under our foundation/slab is priceless). We did start the refinancing process on our home about a month ago, locking in a 5% fixed rate (down from the 6.375% we had originally). We close on that new loan on Monday, which will save us about $250 per month on our mortgage payment. Every little bit helps at this point.

Nearly everyone I know has been effected to some degree by this horrible economy. I don't know that I agree with everything that the government has done to try to fix it -- and I expect things will not get better for quite some time. I know that there are some that are much worse off than we are, even with our current problems. I'm grateful every day for our savings and for my husband's military retirement pay, which is enough to pay our mortgage under the worse circumstances. We've also finished paying for my daughter's college for this year -- so we have some time until the fall semester starts to figure out how to deal with that. Once the replumb and bathroom remodel is done, then I think I'll be able to take a deep breath, reassess, and draw up a new budget so that we can all feel more at ease, knowing everything will be paid, even if Mike becomes truly unemployed.

Change

I didn't have a great night last night. I was up until midnight with indigestion and then finally was able to sleep for about four hours. Then, around 4am, I started sleeping fitfully, having a dream that kept getting interrupted (but then it would start up again where it left off when I dozed back to sleep again).

The dream was quite vivid. In it, I was apparently giving a speech at a company meeting about "Change." There have really been some changes at work in some departments (in real life). They have brought in a "LEAN team" in order to standardize things and make things run more smoothly. This has generated quite a bit of hostility and push back from those who thought things were fine just as they were. However, I haven't been working in those particular departments for months -- so I'm not sure what brought on the "Change" dream.

In the dream, I was writing notes for my speech. I clearly remember that it went something like this:

Almost no one welcomes change. It's usually hard and sometimes terrifying. It's hard to understand why change has to happen -- as you may think things are running fine, just as they are. This is true both in a professional and personal setting. However, life IS change -- if we are stagnant, things never have a chance to improve. Can change fail? Well, yes -- but the alternative is unacceptable, as to keep the status quo, never taking a risk, never exploring options, might mean a safe life -- but not a successful life.

At that point, my dream dissolved into something a bit different. I was watching myself give a speech (but I knew in my dream that I was not really giving this particular speech and it was just my imagination) and I was talking about how I had worked this job for months, had done a good job, and had been assured a full time job, which never materialized -- and "that is bullshit." Clearly, I must have some issues with the fact that there is a hiring freeze! LOL! I imagine they are linked to the uncertainty of my husband's job just now (the sale to the major investor in the company went through, and they've been told there will be some news about the future of employees this week).

Anyway -- the point of this post is that I woke up really thinking about change (as I felt my "speech" was a good one that made sense). I wondered to myself if I needed to embrace change more. Certainly there are things in life I am not particularly happy with -- but I've been living with the status quo because change would be hard and stressful -- and I didn't want that in my life just now. Perhaps my subconscious is telling me it's time to really examine my life and make the changes that need to be made in order to improve my mental and physical well being. So, that is my goal for this week -- and I'm going to start a positive change by heading back to the gym (for the first time in months). Mike and I worked out a schedule so that each of us can go on alternate mornings (while the other gets our son off to school). With both of us committed and with a plan, it should work out for each of us.

I'll keep you updated on what changes I decide to make in my life.