Thanks everybody. A lawyer is a good idea. I could afford the retainer. Off the top of my head she could get at a minimum of $30k for the 5 acres as is. A savvy and handy buyer could take permits to add onto the house and tear the old parts down as they go. Our family friends could start paying her $300/mo for the old property to pay back the $20k under the original agreement. I never understood why she never went forward. Seemed like easy money. In retrospect, it may have been in part to her hoarding "fear of loss" which is what my T said. Once she got the initial payment, that was good enough for her.
It's turning mega hot here in California, within a week's time. I want to hang out here with my kids, school and weekend ballet over. Play in the sprinkler. Go to the park (or also the water park). Relax. I have to take Friday off work to watch them, so it's like a 3 day weekend for us. S7 wants to build something he saw in his minecraft craft book. I hate craft stores (my mom was always dragging me to them and also fabric stores, along why garage sales), but I'll take one for the team for my boy.
Speaking of garage sales, I picked up a like new stunt bike for my son. $40. For another $40, I got an adult sized 20-something speed, an iron man bike. Both have new tires, and they threw in an extra set of off road tires for the adult bike. Deals can be found. Maybe I shouldn't let my childhood experiences prevent me from enjoying things. Upside: I've been trying to get S7 to stand on the pedals on his old bike, but being Asperger's, I think he's thought "seats are for sitting." The stunt bike is slightly too high for him to ride (seat adjusted the lowest), unless he stands on the pedals, so I demonstrated, and he was trying it on his small bike. We even had D5 on her little push bike (no pedals). I was demonstrating balancing and standing for both of them.
This seems kind of pedestrian, maybe, but I never had a dad, so I'm trying to be what I imagined I might have had. Whatever the case, I'm enjoying it.
Maybe the weekend after next I'll go find my mom... .take the kids with me as wing persons... .
