My youngest daughter and 2 year old granddaughter moved in with us in the last 2 weeks, nearly doubling our household and completely filling the last "guest" bedroom. We moved our SCA stuff into our master bedroom closet. Sig moved his car out of the garage, and my daughter's stuff into the garage. Since my oldest grand-daughter, who is going to college in Folsom and Sacramento, already lives with us, this effectively fills the entire house. It's a long story as to why. It has something to do with the economy, although there are lots of other reasons as well. The economy didn't help, shall we say? When people are living on the edge, as my daughter and her boyfriend have been doing for years, it doesn't take much to fall over. Her boyfriend is living with his sister. The two of them are very lucky; they live in a house that their grandparent's owned and their mother grew up in. And their mother is lucky; she lives in a house that she bought about an hour's drive away. In times like these, it would be great to have a house that you could just keep moving family into without it disrupting your actual house and routine.Our rental agreement was of course only for Sig and myself. The owners of the property could demand that we move. I don't think they would do that, but they could. There are now 4 visible cars outside in front, and our old van in the RV camping in back. That's a lot of vehicles. Thank goodness my daughter is a neatnik, so at least I have a lot of help in keeping the house as liveable as possible. If it were my house, I'd not worry about any of that. But it's not, so I do worry.
We are only about 30 days or so into our 45 to 60 day wait to hear if the bank will accept our offer on the short sale, and already things have changed drastically for the worse. Aside from the greater economy showing obvious signs of a severe and perhaps prolonged Recession, the additional strain of gas, utilities and food for twice as many people is a burden. Frankly, I can't do it on my paycheck any longer, and my paycheck is the largest and my bills the least of my entire extended family.
If the offer is accepted, and I can still get the loan, we'll still go through with it at this point. But if it's not, then I think that's the end of the road for any hopes to keep the down payment long enough to find and put an offer on another house. There is just too much that needs to be done on too little money. My granddaughter may be able to find another job, but it was hard for her to find the one she had and the economy was booming when she did. My daughter has a job, with UPS, but it is low-paying entry level and part-time with no hope of full time for at least 3 years. It's a miracle to me that people will actually work it. I guess most do it for the benefits and the hope that they will sooner or later be promoted.
My family celebrates the end of October/beginning of November as the beginning of a new year. This has been a very disappointing year for me when family matters are the focus. I'm lucky to have friends and avocations that I find fascinating, and a career that is uplifting and meaningful.
I love my kids, and my grandkids. I don't begrudge helping them. And I foresaw that this would likely happen, so Sig and I were semi-prepared. But it still sucks.
And so much has changed in the past year that it makes me apprehensive about the coming year.
