Not to be confused with "Preparation H", which does feel good....on the whole!

My contract at MDI had ended and I had few other contracts to finsih out before I could really get to work on the house.  I tore out plaster, stripped, painted, edged, replaced floors, hung and mudded sheetrock, and generally cleaned up.  After 3 months of work we put the house on the market in mid May.

During that time, I had sold "Cordelia", our 1985 Ericson 35-3 that we owned since 2006.  We put a lot of work into restoring her and she commanded a premium price.  Click here to see more photos.  I helped the new owner deliver her to Annapolis.  My friend Chris Allen and my brothers Doug and John crewed.  We went as far as Stamford, Ct.

Well, it has been a year since I was laid off from  Emery-Waterhouse.  My position was "eliminated".  Thank God. 
Kathy was so happy that day because she knew how unhappy I had been since things  started going south with Emery.  I had been half heartidly looking but not  too serious.  Well now I had 6 weeks severance and I had to make some decisions.  Luckily we had very little debt so my salary was not necessary.
 
While cruising on Cordelia a few weeks before we had discovered  that Bucks Harbor Marine was for sale.  We decided to pursue this  opportunity and started meeting with the  owners.
 
In the mean time I had picked up some consulting work and landed  a 3 month contract with Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor which would  keep me busy thru Feburary 2010.
 
After lots of research and meetings we arrived at the fateful  day of making an offer on the Marina.  Kathy was very anxious so to calm  her down I suggested we formulate a "Plan B".  Plan B would involve selling  our house and boat and buying a new boat to live aboard.  She liked this  and now said she would be fine if the marina deal fell through.  We made  our ridiculously low offer expecting to be laughed at and run outta town but the  owners said they could work with us.  We got a little scared by this so we  had another accountant check out the books.  He told us to run, not walk,  away from this deal so we did.  We felt like we could breathe  again.

This is the story of how Kathy and I decided to make a life change.  I had been laid off from a job that I hated and we decided to take a new direction.  It started as an idea to buy a marina and charter business and evolved into living aboard full time.  Following is the story of how we sold our beloved "Cordelia", a 1985 Ericson 35-3, renovated and sold our house, bought a new boat and moved aboard.