Some Days Are Better Than Others

Last week Mike was informed that the purchase of his company will not go through after all. Apparently, the delay in financing was just too much and the senior stockholders in the company demanded that the company refile for Chapter 7 and be liquidated instead of saved. So, Mike is officially unemployed at this point.

We had a tough few days as we attempted to process the information. While we always knew logically that this could happen, we always felt that the company would be saved (and thus were in some denial about the possibility of unemployment). Of course, this happened in the middle of the re-plumb of the house and remodel of the master bathroom.

I'm happy to say that the re-plumb went fairly well, passed the city inspection, and now we're just waiting for their drywall guy to patch up all the holes. What wasn't so great was that when we did the initial quote/walk-through with the owner of the plumbing company, he indicated verbally that most of our master bathroom plumbing (for the remodel) would be no extra charge, as they would already be doing plumbing in that area. However, once the re-plumb started, he indicated that the two jobs were to be entirely separate (due to the class action claim), and he would give us a quote for the master bathroom when the re-plumb was done. That is supposed to happen today -- so I'm crossing my fingers he is a man of his word and that no outlandish fee is quoted, as we just can't afford another huge cost just now (we had to spend $2000 of our own money to hire this particular company, as opposed to the company the class action people usually use (we were not impressed at all with them), to use the materials that every plumber we talked to recommended (instead of the materials included in the class action claim) and to continue the re-plumb to the street so that we would not have a possibility of future leaks under the slab (which is an expensive problem with the substandard pipes).

We spent the weekend productively, doing taxes to figure exactly how much we owed and making a spreadsheet of our finances, including current income, money that is expected in soon, unusual expenses (like the bathroom remodeling costs and taxes), and a regular monthly budget. It made us feel a lot better to see that we'll still have some savings left after our unusual expenses and that we'll be bringing in enough to live on if we are careful with our spending.

Mike was able to get into the dentist for his cleaning before the benefits expired at the end of the month (the kids and I were just in last month). Our health insurance continues, as it is military and not through his work. We were also informed by the company (two days before the end of the month) that we had to use up any money in our FlexPay account by 2/28, or loose it. So, we had to go on an unexpected shopping spree to purchase over the counter medications and other covered items so that we could submit a claim for the amount we had paid in this year. We'll use all of the items eventually, but it was frustrating that the company did not let us know about the situation until two days before the deadline.

I'll be happy to see the progress on the drywall patching when I come home from work today and hopefully the quote from the plumber for the master bathroom plumbing is not horrible. I'm so eager to have my house put back together again and items put away. Living in chaos, especially during this particular time and situation, is stressful -- and we need as much peace of mind as we can get just now :)