When we were first married, Art had an old MG Midget--a classic British sports car that was charming but was often out of commission. At one point the clutch needed to be replaced, so Art dutifully prepared to do the work himself. He opened the owner's manual to the chapter entitled How To Replace The Clutch, and it read:
Step 1: Remove the engine.
Engine removal, as you might imagine, was in a separate chapter, much lengthier than the one for clutch replacement.
Moral of story: often projects can't even be started without tackling other big projects--and this was no exception. In order to sail away for two years, we had to sell the house and almost everything in it, which required extensive remodeling (Art's primary task) and radical purging (my primary task).
It took all of the 2013-14 school year to go through four decades of accumulated Stuff. Much was given away, most of the rest was sold, and the remaining items are now in one storage unit. Art repainted the house inside and out, pulled up lots of carpet and refinished the underlying hardwood floors, tiled the kitchen and bathroom floors, installed granite countertops, replaced a lot of lighting and some appliances, and probably other upgrades I've forgotten to list. The result looked like something from a magazine; indeed, we got several high offers as soon as we put the house on the market. Mission accomplished!
I took plenty of pictures of Art on high ladders, Art cutting granite, Art sanding floors, etc.--but sad to say, I can't post them because I didn't have time to write blog entries until after we left Seattle, and the flash drives with older photos are in the storage unit. (There weren't any photos of me, but there's not much entertainment in seeing Nancie studying for her ham radio license, Nancie researching insurance options/itinieraries/electronic equipment etc., Nancie packing boxes...)
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