This weekend it will be 30 years since you walked into your house for the first time.
You still remember walking through the living room to the windows that looked into the backyard. On that day you saw the snow covered hill and the woods leading to the farm field in the distance and you knew this was the house you wanted! Your and your husband put in a bid, and you were able to move in by the end of February, less than two months after finding it.
You needed a ranch style because you had decided to move your husband’s parents in with with the tow of you and your two teenage sons. A few months before, your mother-in-law could not navigate their two-story house, and you had put her in a nursing home. The reality, however, was that she really did not need that level of care yet, so you decided to sell their house of 53 years and your house of 15 years and combine your two households into one new home!
This was in a time long before This weekend it will be 30 years since you walked into your house for the first time.
You still remember walking through the living room to the windows that looked into the backyard. On that day you saw the snow covered hill and the woods leading to the farm field in the distance and you knew this was the house you wanted! Your and your husband put in a bid, and you were able to move in by the end of February, less than two months after finding it.
You needed a ranch style because you had decided to move your husband’s parents in with with the tow of you and your two teenage sons. A few months before, your mother-in-law could not navigate their two-story house, and you had put her in a nursing home. The reality, however, was that she really did not need that level of care yet, so you decided to sell their house of 53 years and your house of 15 years and combine your two households into one new home!
This was in a time long before electronic case management, litigation settlements, and bidding wars for hard to find properties. You worked with the local financial services you were familiar with and were easily able to manage the two sales and the one new purchase.
At the time there were only two houses to choose from and the one you selected was in a subdivision at the base of the hill by your sons’ school, and this house won you over immediately!
Your in-laws each took one of the main floor bedrooms, and you and your husband took the master. With an unfinished basement, your two sons initially had to sleep on the two sofas in the living room. They had their dressers and an old metal armoire for their closet. The living room looked like a second hand furniture store while your father and your brother worked on the basement to create two bedrooms, a family room and a partial bathroom on the lower level!
My father was experiencing some physical limitations at that time which eventually developed into a form of Parkinsonism, so he was unable to perform the heavier tasks associated with the construction. Your brother, who had once been your father’s business partner in their construction business before he retired, could only work on evenings and weekends because he was now working full time for another construction firm. Although it took a while to finish, the outcome was wonderful. Working with family does not always go so smoothly, but in this case you were able to avoid the headaches of needing outside contractors.
When you hear horror stories of the need for complicated electronic case management, contract disputes, and other problems that people have when they are building and buying a home you know that you are very fortunate.
Now that it is 30 years later you and your husband still enjoy sitting in the living room, by yourselves, once again looking out the windows at all that snow that first captured your heart! You know that especially during the pandemic you are fortunate that you have been able to avoid any of the bankruptcy trends that you read about in the paper and you are more than thankful that so far in your lives you have not had the need for any kind of complicated financial electronic case management.
Has Your Family Financially Survived the Pandemic?
In addition to the problems that home owners have had making mortgage payments and renters have had managing their bills, the news is full of scary tales of electronic case management intervention and other financial interruptions. It is important to note that as many as 90% of all Chapter 11 debtors have less than $10 million in assets or liabilities, less than $10 million in annual revenues, and 50 or fewer employees. When these small companies go under, however, the fall out can extend to individual families, entire neighborhoods, and sometimes entire communities. If you do find yourself in a financial situation that Is difficult to navigate, it is important to get the legal help and advice that you need sooner rather than later.