Burke,

That's not such a bad suggestion to buy a duplex. After my boyfriend (now hubby) moved from 300 miles away to here (i.e. after we had been going out for a year) he moved to a house only a block away from mine. It was near enough to spend time together, and separate enough to have time to ourselves. It was especially important for us, we decided, to ease into the closer living, because we were in the habit of only seeing each other every second weekend or so before that, because of the distance.

After we got engaged (another way of saying that we had made the commitment for a long term relationship) and about a month before the wedding he moved into my place. I was very wary of moving in for reasons based on convenience, practicality, or anything other than long term commitment to the relationship.

Helen