In response to Susanne

Susanne posed an interesting question in her comment to this morning's post..."am interested to know what living with another couple is like at this stage of your married life." I won't tell you to go jump in the lake; I don't mind you asking at all.

Where to start.... John and I moved to Kelowna just over two years ago to open a restaurant here in town (we have since sold our share). We rented a large house so that we could "board" some of the restaurant employees. At one time, we had our bedroom and the other four rooms were rented to restaurant employees. The house also contained a two-bedroom basement suite that was rented out separately. When we moved in, it was rented to two young men. After we sold our share of the restaurant, the employees slowly made other arrangements and one of the guys from downstairs moved in with us upstairs. That's when Rob & Carol rented the basement suite. They were a fairly "new" couple (having been together about three years... the same as John & I, who had gotten married about two months before they moved in). We got along well with them and when we had to move (the landlord's son bought the house and wanted to move in), the four of us talked and decided that if we could find a house large enough and for the right price, we wouldn't mind repeating the housing situation. The search didn't yield anything that was appropriate at the time, so we rented a house with one of our boarders and lived there for about 4 months. Then, with Rob & Carol dissatisfied with their basement suite, this house came on the market. Between the four of us, the rent is not overwhelmingly high and the house is large enough that we can have our privacy if we so choose it. And... it's on the lake.

We've signed a one year lease. So far, it's working well.

And Susanne, anything else you'd like to know, please don't hesitate to ask. I won't say that my life is an open book, but I have nothing to hide. (That goes for anyone else, too.)