I have stayed in the house with the kids the whole time. I want to stay with our initial plan of selling the house and divorcing next summer when S17 is done high school and the mortgage is due for renewal. But, I will tell you that sometimes living in "our" house and sleeping in "our" bed is tough. There are so many memories - good and bad - here that it makes it difficult. I know STBX having her own apartment definitely makes her feel like she has very little connection to our old life. She sees us as "not together", "done", "exes" and that is why she was finally able to go open with her relationship with her boss. That reality hurts me, because it makes me realize that she has finally given up on us 100%. Up until the last few months, I believe there was a tiny part of her that still had not moved on entirely in her mind.
A lot of the "pros" here say to stand your ground and make the WAS, do the physical walking, but I don't think that is always the best idea. Once they have actually accomplished that, there are even more sure they don't need their former life.
