Profs who have done a full year sabbatical overseas with a family: How did you make it work? I'm curious to hear from any American professor out there who has successfully done a full-year sabbatical overseas, with his or her family along for the ride. How did you make it work for you financially and personally? 

For context: I'll be eligible in 2018 for my first sabbatical in my 20-year career (I changed jobs twice and the tenure clock got reset). I would very much like to take an entire year, and I have contacts at a university in the UK (I am in the US) with mutual interest in me coming to spend a year there doing teaching and research. What I don't have is any idea how to pull this off logistically, since I have three kids ages 7, 10, and 12, and a wife with a full-time job. My university only gives half salary for a full-year sabbatical, so we would have to replace half of my salary plus all of my wife's salary (about $30K US), rent our house to cover mortgage expenses, enroll the kids in schools, rent a house in the host country, etc. I believe I would be given a small salary at the host institution if I taught a class (which I would love to do) but still, that's a lot of income to replace and I am not sure if my wife can take a year off. 

I do believe the professional experience would be amazing, and it would be an incredible experience for my kids that would be absolutely worth the upheaval. But I'm at a loss to know how to make this work -- so your experiences and ideas would be most welcome. 

I have looked into Fulbright fellowships, but my understanding of how those work is that you can only pick from the universities and positions that Fulbright has in a list. The institution I am referring to is not one of those. Also -- simply squirreling away money to save up for it is not an option for a number of reasons.
I've taken two full-year overseas sabbaticals, each on my half-salary plus a small ad-hoc stipend from the host institution, the first with just my wife and the the second with my wife and our two small children.  Fortunately my wife's job is flexible enough to allow for occasional leaves without pay.

We rented out our house (at a slight discount, because the renters also took care of our dog).  We lived like students in a small apartment.  We took public transportation everywhere.  During the second sabbatical, our kids enrolled in the on-campus kindergarten; that was one of the key reasons we went where we did.

We also burned through several thousand dollars in savings and racked up several thousand more in credit card debt, which took a couple of years to pay off, but the experience was worth every penny.  We're looking forward to doing it a third time in a few years, despite the extra complication of older children.

The most important thing I can suggest is to forget the idea of making up your and your wife's missing salaries, or even a significant fraction thereof.  It's just not going to happen.  You just have to live with less and make it work.

The other important thing is that it has to work for your entire family.  No matter how good the experience might be for you professionally, if you aren't visiting a place where your family can actually enjoy living, you are all going to be utterly miserable.  I strongly recommend making connections with the families of your colleagues at your host institution, well before the final planning stages.