I don't think you're nuts. A "marriage of convenience," is how I think of it.
I considered something similar to what you're contemplating, but would have proposed it directly to my then-husband, as a way for us each to get time and space away from each other but retain the financial advantage we enjoyed as a couple with two incomes and a paid off house. As I envisioned it, we would have lived maybe eight or nine months a year apart, me going away and him staying in the house; that's what would have suited us both, and merely extended a practice we already had established of me leaving home for a couple of months each summer to go back to the area of the country where I grew up and my family lives still.
I thought such an arrangement would give him the space and privacy he wanted to cross dress freely (my ex considers himself trans but is in the closet) without me in the house, and I wouldn't have to see it and would get time to go to the place where I am most at home. For most of the year, that is, he'd get what he wanted, and I'd get what I wanted. We'd each have to compromise during the three months we lived together (we would maintain separate bedrooms).
In fact, my ex's sister and her husband are considering something much like that when they retire in two years, not because he's gay, but because they want different things in retirement. He wants to spend five months a year in a remote family home, and she wants to travel. They already spend a lot of their time apart or in parallel pursuits in their jobs.
In my case, it became more and more apparent that living with my now-ex for even three to four months a year was going to require compromises on his part that he was not going to be willing the make, and that my refusal to participate in his sexual fantasies would cause a lot of resentment on his part, and raise the tension in the house. I didn't think we could simply live like roomates, with no expectations of the other. Also, as during our marriage I was the one who monitored what needed to be done in terms of house maintenance and repair, I both didn't want that burden, and didn't think it was fair for him to push that off onto me.
I think that with open communication and a mutual willingness to compromise an arrangement like this could work. At some moments, I regret that my ex would not have been flexible enough for us to set up that kind of arrangement. Most of the time, though, I'm so relieved to be away and to have my autonomy--living that way would have limited me in ways I think now I'm glad not to be limited.
Last edited by OutofHisCloset (July 10, 2019 11:22 am)
ClairUnderwood wrote: