You are using rather ambiguous terminology, so can we clarify the precise situation that prompted your queries?
Firstly, you describe the wife as the "administrator" but later you refer to a will. Unless the executors named in the will died before the will was proved, and the court therefore had to appoint an administrator (or administratrix, if it was the widow or another female), then presumably we are talking about the testator's widow acting as executrix?
I am not 100% certain what you mean by the estate "staying open" or "settled". Do you mean that there was a long delay between the death and probate being granted or that the executors took a long time between receiving grant of probate and carrying out their duty to put the testator's wishes into action?
Executors are legally obliged to carry out the wishes of the testator. If a will states that a widow has the right to remain in a property for her lifetime then the executors have a duty to make sure this happens. But it is unlikely for a will that makes such a stipulation not to state to whom legal ownership of the property should pass. To use a common example, a man might leave his farm to his eldest son, but with the condition that his widow lives there for the rest of her life. If such an arrangement proved uncongenial (perhaps because the widow didn't get on with her daughter-in-law!) she could not be thrown out of her home, although she could come to a private arrangement with her son for him to house her somewhere else at his expense.
It is theoretically possible that a will might that a property should be sold but with the proviso that the widow remained resident in for life. Such a legal provision would vastly reduce the value of the property but, especially if the widow was elderly, it would be a bargain for a purchaser who was prepared to wait a few years to occupy the property and this arrangement would raise a capital sum which might be applied to providing for the widow's living costs. Even today, one sees property sold with a "sitting tenant".
It could take some time for probate of a will to be granted and then for the executors to discharge their duties properly so it was not uncommon for some years to pass between the death and the final bequests to be made, particularly if the latter were dependent on the sale of property, which could take some time.
If you could let us have more details (particularly the wording of the will itself) we might be able to help more.
Best wishes
Caroline