Sundown Sailing Adventures

We made another big decision. We decided to paint a couple of the walls in our house to change their color from eggplant purple to a more neutral color. You might be wondering how deciding to paint a couple walls qualifies as a “big” decision. You also might be wondering what in the world that decision has to do with a sailboat. Well, in our case, it has A LOT to do with a sailboat. You see, we decided to sell our house in preparation for moving aboard Sundown and I think some people may be turned off by the color purple, so I returned two walls to a more neutral color.

We’ve been wrestling with whether we should sell the house we’ve called home for over 20 years or let our sons rent it. The former feels like a real commitment; the latter feels much safer. After listing out the pros and cons, shedding more than a few fretful tears (me) and talking with the boys, we’re going for it! Here’s some of the reasons why:

• No house means no mortgage (even if it would be covered with rent)
• No house means no distress calls if something breaks or quits working, like the furnace or garage door opener
• Selling the house now means we won’t have to come back and do it in a year or so
• We can use a bit of the cash from the sale of the house for a couple remaining big-ticket items, like new sails!

We also reasoned that if we end up not liking life aboard a sailboat and want to return to being land lubbers, we wouldn’t want to remain living in the house we have now. It’s big and has served us well during the child-rearing season of our life, but it’s time to scale back and down size. We’d want a much smaller house (a tiny house, perhaps) with less maintenance demands.

So, not only are we continuing to make forward progress on getting Sundown ready for our September 1 departure goal, now we’re getting the house ready to place on the market in July. With another big decision made, it feels like the winds of change are picking up speed and sweeping us ever toward our sailing adventure.