Until parcel one is sold, the court ordered that wife be allowed to remain residing, rent free, at the marital home. However, she argues that the payment should have started at the time of her injury. Regardless, a balancing of wife's needs and husband's ability to pay shows that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in ordering the maintenance payments commence thirty days after sale of the marital residence. However, since we are remanding for further action, see infra, the commencement date may need to be changed depending on the circumstances of the parties and the trial court's new decree regarding maintenance. Likewise, given our instructions to the trial court to determine the amount of maintenance in conformance with this opinion, we will not address the parties' arguments concerning the amount of maintenance originally awarded by the trial court.
Courts prefer a maintenance award of unlimited duration.
Maintenance should not be prospectively terminated if there is no evidence or reasonable expectation that the circumstances of the parties will be markedly different in the future. The only facts before the court were that wife had, at one time during the marriage, briefly worked in a jewelry store while husband was laid off. She could not work at the time of trial due to a broken leg. The facts also indicate the most that she can make, at least in the beginning, is minimum wage. She had only one year of college and, except for this brief period of time, had not worked outside the home during their 31-year marriage.