School is going well, but employment in this new field is still a way off. I guess that Fingers Crossed has become my new insurance policy. Ugh.
.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
There it goes......
As of yesterday, I no longer have health coverage of any kind. For anyone who has ever wondered..... yes, that's scary. Really scary.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
And now, I realize that I have to ask......
My name is Pamela. I am in trouble.
I thought I had done everything right. As a teenager, I arranged my first job interview on the birthday that made me old enough to work in my state. I worked after school and weekends. I made it to a good college. After college, I married. After the birth of my daughter, the marriage fell apart. I tried to hold it together, but it wasn't to be. I moved, buying a small house and arranging a fixed-rate mortgage so that my payments wouldn't rise sharply and strain my monthly budget. The two of us weren't jetting to Europe for the summer, but we were doing fine.
Then disaster hit. I came back from my sister's wedding to find that my basement had flooded, though not terribly. I got that cleaned up, with some help to remove the moldy carpet and many ruined belongings. Still, we were fine. Then, the basement flooded again. Worse. Mud poured in with the water this time, ruining more of our things and making it apparent that we were not dealing with a small and merely inconvenient leak. I called a company that waterproofs basements - it was going to cost an arm and a leg, but something was wrong and needed to be fixed. Houses will do that to you..... Not great, but I'd manage somehow.
One day, the guys were jackhammering along the wall so that drainage could be installed. Then they stopped. The man in charge came up and, with a tone of voice that told me something was seriously wrong, said, "Ma'am, you need to see this." We went downstairs together, where he walked over to the wall, knelt down, and put his hand between the wall and the floor!
Long story short, the foundation had come away from the wall and was sinking. At least part of the house had been built over asphalt, which they tell me is not a good idea at all. In order to keep the house from actually collapsing, they wound up needing to put in piering - like long metal stilts all around the outer wall, drilled down until they hit solid rock. Solid rock is nowhere near the surface where I live.
So, I have now dealt with three different companies, none of whom did anything wrong, and who need to be paid. Insurance won't touch this. The builder is out of business and state law would keep me from suing them anyway. State law also keeps me from suing the former owner (not the family who sold it to me, but before them) even though it is very obvious that he knew there was a problem and covered it up..... And I am left with $150,000 worth of debt over and above my mortgage.
Add to this that I have had trouble finding a job and am now putting myself through nursing school in hopes of employment in the near future. My health insurance will run out at the end of January and the medications that I actually need are not cheap. I miss the cutoffs to be able to get the state's subsidized health insurance, but because of the debt payments due to the house repairs, I cannot even hope to afford my own.
I have maxed out my second mortgage and a few credit cards. I have had to withdraw most of my retirement savings. I have Ebayed or sold items to get me through the month, but those won't last. If I sell the house, I wind up further in debt due to all of the fees and such. I need to finish school before I can think about moving to be closer to the few family members I do have.
So, I am in trouble and asking for help. I have spent much of my life working in various ways to help other people out, but now I am the one who needs help. Desperately. My daughter deserves a roof over her head. I need to stop skipping meals so that she can eat. I need to finish school so that I can begin to get back on my feet. So, I am asking. Please click on the Paypal link at the top of this page and please pass this blog along to people you know. Even if all you can send is a few dollars, please know that it will be warmly and deeply appreciated beyond words.
I thought I had done everything right. As a teenager, I arranged my first job interview on the birthday that made me old enough to work in my state. I worked after school and weekends. I made it to a good college. After college, I married. After the birth of my daughter, the marriage fell apart. I tried to hold it together, but it wasn't to be. I moved, buying a small house and arranging a fixed-rate mortgage so that my payments wouldn't rise sharply and strain my monthly budget. The two of us weren't jetting to Europe for the summer, but we were doing fine.
Then disaster hit. I came back from my sister's wedding to find that my basement had flooded, though not terribly. I got that cleaned up, with some help to remove the moldy carpet and many ruined belongings. Still, we were fine. Then, the basement flooded again. Worse. Mud poured in with the water this time, ruining more of our things and making it apparent that we were not dealing with a small and merely inconvenient leak. I called a company that waterproofs basements - it was going to cost an arm and a leg, but something was wrong and needed to be fixed. Houses will do that to you..... Not great, but I'd manage somehow.
One day, the guys were jackhammering along the wall so that drainage could be installed. Then they stopped. The man in charge came up and, with a tone of voice that told me something was seriously wrong, said, "Ma'am, you need to see this." We went downstairs together, where he walked over to the wall, knelt down, and put his hand between the wall and the floor!
Long story short, the foundation had come away from the wall and was sinking. At least part of the house had been built over asphalt, which they tell me is not a good idea at all. In order to keep the house from actually collapsing, they wound up needing to put in piering - like long metal stilts all around the outer wall, drilled down until they hit solid rock. Solid rock is nowhere near the surface where I live.
So, I have now dealt with three different companies, none of whom did anything wrong, and who need to be paid. Insurance won't touch this. The builder is out of business and state law would keep me from suing them anyway. State law also keeps me from suing the former owner (not the family who sold it to me, but before them) even though it is very obvious that he knew there was a problem and covered it up..... And I am left with $150,000 worth of debt over and above my mortgage.
Add to this that I have had trouble finding a job and am now putting myself through nursing school in hopes of employment in the near future. My health insurance will run out at the end of January and the medications that I actually need are not cheap. I miss the cutoffs to be able to get the state's subsidized health insurance, but because of the debt payments due to the house repairs, I cannot even hope to afford my own.
I have maxed out my second mortgage and a few credit cards. I have had to withdraw most of my retirement savings. I have Ebayed or sold items to get me through the month, but those won't last. If I sell the house, I wind up further in debt due to all of the fees and such. I need to finish school before I can think about moving to be closer to the few family members I do have.
So, I am in trouble and asking for help. I have spent much of my life working in various ways to help other people out, but now I am the one who needs help. Desperately. My daughter deserves a roof over her head. I need to stop skipping meals so that she can eat. I need to finish school so that I can begin to get back on my feet. So, I am asking. Please click on the Paypal link at the top of this page and please pass this blog along to people you know. Even if all you can send is a few dollars, please know that it will be warmly and deeply appreciated beyond words.
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