I can’t remember an exact moment of decision.

Owning an 1800 sq ft home and two boats while commuting to Seattle had become an energy suck instead of energizing. There were not enough hours in the day to maintain the large yard, gardens, home, garages, boats and things started to pile up. Those things and a realization that retirement age was going to come fairly soon without me being financially ready to actually retire. I hadn’t weathered marriage, divorce, or recessions as well as I wanted to financially.

Could I give up boating? It was my passion so how would I do that? Would I have to beg rides on other people’s boats?

Down-sizing was getting more and more attractive. I was looking forward to lightening my possessions. Everything I owned needed my constant attention and it was getting to be overwhelming. I needed a new roof, a section of the deck needed to be replaced, and the fence fell over in a storm. The truck needed some maintenance, the boat, needed a lot of maintenance. I just could not do it all.

But…I was afraid. I was afraid of being without a home. I wasn’t excited about living in an apartment either. It didn’t seem any less expensive to live on a boat, but I could at least live on the water in the lifestyle I wanted. AND I’d have to liberate a bunch of possessions. The kids could take the stuff they wanted to their own homes. And so the process that would ultimately last two years began in earnest in mid-2017.