Moving in together is about more than just sharing space. For two tech lovers, it meant merging home labs—and creating a surprisingly romantic network diagram.
My girlfriend and I recently moved in together. It’s a big step, full of exciting firsts: deciding on a couch, figuring out who gets which side of the closet, and, of course, merging our home labs.
Wait, what?
Yeah, you read that right. We’re both tech nerds. So for us, combining our lives also meant combining our servers, routers, and switches. It’s not your typical relationship milestone, but it was ours. And it was kind of awesome.
More Than Just WiFi
For most people, a home network is just the WiFi password you give to guests. It’s invisible. It just works (most of the time). But for us, it’s a hobby. A “home lab” is just a playground for tech enthusiasts. It’s where we host our own media servers, run smart home automations, or just tinker with new software.
So when we moved in together, we had two of everything. Two networks, two sets of gear, two digital worlds. We had to figure out how to make them one.
I was ready to just plug everything in and hope for the best. My approach is usually a bit of organized chaos. But my girlfriend? She’s a planner. She’s the kind of person who reads the instructions.
One evening, she sat down with her tablet and started sketching. I thought she was doodling, but then she turned the screen to me. It was a complete network diagram.
A Love Story, in Diagram Form
There it was. A beautifully organized chart showing how every single device would connect. Her servers, my servers, the modem, the router, the smart lights, even our gaming PCs. Everything had a place.
It had clear labels:
– His: My collection of servers and gadgets.
– Hers: Her equally impressive setup.
– Ours: The new, unified network that would power our home.
It wasn’t just a technical drawing. It felt like a map of our new life together. It showed how we were taking our individual passions and finding a way for them to coexist and work together. It was logical, collaborative, and honestly, a little romantic.
Seeing our digital lives laid out like that made the whole process feel real. It wasn’t just my stuff and her stuff anymore. It was becoming our stuff.
Why This Actually Matters
Okay, I get it. A network diagram might seem like the nerdiest thing in the world. But it taught me something.
Every relationship is about merging two lives. It’s about communication and finding a shared language. For some couples, that might be figuring out a cooking schedule or a system for laundry. For us, it was drawing a map of our home network.
It’s about respecting each other’s worlds, even if they’re filled with blinking lights and weird acronyms. It’s about building something new together. The diagram wasn’t about control or being rigid; it was about creating a system where both of our interests could thrive. It was a practical solution born from a shared passion.
So, yeah. My girlfriend moved in, and we made a network diagram. It’s not the kind of romantic story you see in movies. But it’s ours. It’s a little bit nerdy, a little bit weird, and a whole lot of us. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
It’s a reminder that the best parts of a relationship often happen in the small, unexpected moments—even if those moments involve routers and IP addresses. It ain’t much, but it’s honest work.