Retirement can ask a couple to renegotiate a home they thought they already knew how to share.

A shared home is arranged around absences as much as presence. When two people have spent decades apart for eight hours a day, the house has quietly been divided into times as well as rooms, and losing that structure changes far more than the diary. Being together more is not the same as being closer, and needing space from someone you love is not a verdict on the marriage.

Talk about the practical shape of the day rather than the feelings underneath it: who has the kitchen in the morning, when each of you goes out alone. Small agreements about hours prevent a lot of quiet friction.