Yes, the boys got back with their mom (and MIL) in the wee hours Thursday night / early Friday morning.
I got back from my business trip out of town Friday, early evening. W had come over to my apartment to drop the boys off. I talked to her on the cellphone as I drove the remaining distance.
After the trading of "niceties" she asked me if I had heard any news out of our L's concerning the settlement. I said "no", and that I thought the L's were still awaiting all our information, but then, I said, I saw no reason for them not to proceed on a draft given the known information.
W then started talking about the poor and worsening state of the economy, and how this financial crisis was going to put a severe damper on our chances to sell our house. Most people were going to find it next to impossible to get a decent loan or a mortgage. While I've tried hard to not worry myself about current affairs (no pun intended) -- as part of my new policy to no longer worry about things in general I cannot control -- I could only agree reluctantly that things at this point do look bad. Our neighbors' house sold so very quickly and for well above their asking price, and we're not going to be so lucky, not now.
But W said she does not want to sell at a loss. She's willing to bide her time until the economy turns around and we can sell our house for what it's worth. But she acknowledged it's too costly for us to maintain an apartment lease and a mortgage.
So W once again began suggesting that I refinance the house and move back into it until the house can be sold. She said I made enough money to be able to refinance the house in just my name, but she could not herself with her income. I started again to explain to her that I was not interested in perpetuating being house-poor indefinitely -- that it was difficult enough on two salaries, let enough on just my own.
But she told me at that point that we had received another pre-approved offer from one of the lenders to refinance the house at a fairly reasonable rate. She said at that rate I could refi the house at a monthly mortgage the same as my current apartment lease. We've built up considerable equity in our house over the last eight years -- which is good, but also the reason I told her again that I cannot afford to buy her share out and make the mortgage payment.
She was still insistent that it was doable. She even said she'd be willing to cosign the new mortgage if necessary to get a good rate. I would take over the mortgage payment entirely and she would hold off of her share of the equity in the house until we do manage to sell it -- she would be willing to bide her time until the economic conditions were favorable to selling for a decent amount. She asked if she could begin looking into this offer.
I told W that only if the rate was at a fixed APR and not a variable rate would I be even remotely interested. I told her that because of my currently fruitless search for an new cheaper apartment in our S's school district, I would think about it. I said it probably wouldn't be wise to make a decision until after the elections, when we can see whether a new administration hostile to the economy might come into power, and which might effect our decisions one way or another.
I still wonder if she wants me to take over the house to not only have to buy her out but so she wouldn't have to face the guilt -- especially the guilt of having to paint over our S's murals that I painted for them. My other chief concern is that she might want me to be anchored down here while she skips off to the other side of the county or further just to impede my ability to parent my S's. Let's just say I have little cause to trust her and her stated motives.
Nevertheless I will mention this to my L to see if there's some angle I haven't yet considered.
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Been having pretty good weekend with the boys. We went to a Harvest Fest at our church yesterday, and have had lots of father-son time in addition to that. Today after church we had to go buy them some new shoes -- it seems that during the trip this past week both of them all but destroyed their best pairs of sneakers (S7 actually melted the back quarter of one shoe on the hot tail-pipe of the four-wheeler he got to ride on with his cousins.)
Buying shoes with two small hyperactive boys is exhausting -- especially when none of the character shoes available in their sizes are acceptable to them. I drove them to five different stores before it was over. Uuuugh.
