Wow! It’s more than two years since I posted! I will try to bring this blog up to date.
Well Joyce and I were married in August of 2006 and we remain very happy together. We have worked out most of the issues that mentioned before and today things seem very natural and comfortable to me (for the most part anyway). We both remark on how lucky we are that we met and I continue to be amazed at how much I love her and how much she loves me. It is truly a blessing.
Just to update some details.
We did get married, as I said. We had great wedding, in a garden in Campbell Ca, (at the Campbell House). We had 165 friends and relatives from all over the US. It was great. We have been remembering some of the planning recently as we watch Joyce’s younger son and his
fiancé plan their wedding for this June. I’m glad it’s not me this time.
We also built the new house. We began dismantling the old house on Memorial Day last year (2007) and the house is now about 80% complete. We worked with an architect to design a 2600 ft2 home on a single floor. Then we undertook the project as our own general contractor. It has been great fun and we learned a lot too. Met some great people and met some jerks as well. Bottom though we love the house and we are eager to finish it and move in. And we have enjoyed the process. Joyce did the bulk of the work since I had to work and she is off except for tax season. She has done a very good job.
The project has been delayed some this spring because Joyce was locked up for tax season. We managed to get her office set up in the new house so between the need to keep the disruption level low and her being tied up not much happened for a few months. But now things are
ramping up again. We have just ordered the hard wood floors, the shower glass, and mirrors. We hope to have the landscaping started in about two weeks. We hope to move in sometime in July.
Some might be interested that we donated the old building to charity. We worked with “Whole House Building Supply & Salvage” (
http://www.driftwoodsalvage.com/). This group helped us figure out the (fairly complex) process. The advantages of recycling most of the material combined with tax deduction made the extra effort worth it. If you have a house in the SF Bay area to demolish you should contact them for information.
The life style question is more complex; we have both adapted quite well so far and we continue to work together to sort it day by day and week by week. It
doesn’t require effort so much, rather thinking and talking over what we want to do.
Finally, we have a nice weekend planned. This afternoon I will take off from work and do some stuff on the house, tonight we have our regular seats for the San Jose Sharks / Dallas game (round 2 of the NHL playoffs). Then tomorrow we will go to San Francisco for a weekend get-away. This is a post-tax-season event for us.
And finally, I can say that I survived the death of a long term and loving spouse, I have found new relationship that is every bit as good as the one I lost. It is very different in many ways it reflects the age we are while starting this marriage but it is very very good. It has made me very happy.
