Make Status objects more robust?

[kostrykin]

#8 (comment) concerns an issue which should be dealt with when writing the status file.

However, e656173 from #15 copes with that issue when reading the status file. Although it would be better to deal with the issue when writing the status file, it is fine for the moment.

[kostrykin]

e656173 from #15 added a word around for this issue.

This issue concerns writing the status file, whereas e656173 copes with the issue when reading the status file. This is fine for now, but it would be more elegant and re-usable, if the issue was coped with at the writing-level.