Wow, this happened before I joined so I never saw it.
My brother had a very similar experience. Doing a remodel, ran a Sawzall through a wire, started the attic on fire. House got torn down to the studs and rewired, but he took the check and spent it all on materials, then did most of the work himself and with help of some connections he had as a logistics manager for Habitat for Humanity. Ended up almost doubling his square footage but took forever and ended up selling the house in a divorce before it was really finished.