Hi, Sari
I see that you posted back in Nov and this is the middle of July. If you are still struggling, contact me. We just did a major overhaul (new launch: 08/01).
By the way: You can't build on a "Clone" and have it become live.

We are facing the same issue. I am a new strategic advisor to our group We have a webmaster and it is important to honor his role. As a result, my plan is to break the project down into small pieces.
1. Restructure the navigation by moving different children under more appropriate parents (This gives us new functionality without changing text, etc. on the old site)
2. Identify a new theme (we really don't have one)
3. Update text, page by page using a trial version to play with for colors/spacing/sidebars, etc. (We plan to bring a new committee on line to make this more efficient. Also,we have our Value Propositions in place to provide guidance)
4. Create a "clone" (you have 30 days to work with clones. At this point, we probably will hire a WA expert to make sure that everything is working well
5. Make the "Clone" the live site (I am not sure how to do this, but WA says they will help).
No guarantees this will work, but I am trying to balance not over-powering/over-loading our webmaster with creating a new site that he can work with easily AND which will be attractive, informative, and functional and will encourage membership.

Hello, are you still looking for advice? We redid our site this summer and I have some advice to share. www.nausetnewcomers.org