Jarlon Tsang and Julie Huang wanted their kids to have one fixed address in California, a place to come back to after college and beyond. At the time the couple rented high-rise apartments in Hong Kong. So they bought property in Palo Alto and, in time, started building. They divorced a few years into the $10.7 million project. They finished the house anyway.
The story starts in 2011. The Los Angeles natives paid $2.46 million for a 1940s cottage in Old Palo Alto, about 2 miles from Stanford. For several years they leased the roughly 1,900-square-foot house to tenants. Then it came down. Covid-19 delays helped stretch construction to almost five years, and the house was done in 2024. Nancy Keates tells the story in the Journal's Mansion section.
When the marriage ended, they didn't sell. They kept ownership in both names and kept going. Huang, 55, a communications consultant and former Alibaba executive, lives in the six-bedroom house with the kids, now 17 and 20. Tsang, 57, still works in Hong Kong. He comes for a few weeks at a time and over the holidays, and sleeps in the basement guest room for privacy. When he's in town, they host all-day get-togethers with friends and family. "This is his home, too," Huang said. Tsang put it simply. "We will always be a family."
Built for light, and for space apart
They couldn't add square footage on the 8,000-square-foot lot, so they built for light and outdoor room instead. Architect Christopher Roach of Studio VARA gave it walls of windows, skylights and a marble screen wall by the entry. A big inner courtyard with its own kitchen works as an outdoor living and dining room. A principal at the firm says the two split the job cleanly. Huang took the interior. Tsang took the structure and the landscaping. Their son, 17, says moving in felt like a fresh start. Their daughter, 20, a junior at Duke, says it feels like a normal family, except everyone has their own space.
Our read
This is a kind story, and a rare one. We file it under Estate and Housing (M6). Many divorcing couples sell the house, since it's often the biggest thing to split. Keeping it works when both people want something more than they want to win. Here, that something was the kids' one address. Still, warmth isn't a legal structure. Two names on a title raise questions that goodwill alone doesn't answer. The paperwork has to say who pays the tax and the roof, and who can force a sale. It has to price a buyout. And it has to say what happens to a share if one owner dies or remarries. Written down while everyone's friendly, those answers protect the peace. Left unwritten, they're the next fight.
Here's where it touches your own plan. It's the deed, if you co-own a house with an ex, a sibling or a grown child. Pull it this week and read how title is held. Joint tenants usually means the survivor gets the whole house. Tenants in common means each share goes where that owner's will or trust sends it. State rules can change how this works after a divorce, so check that your will matches the deed. Those two papers decide who stands in that courtyard in 20 years. You patch the roof on a sunny day, and you fix a deed while everyone is still friendly. If the two don't match, bring both to a review and we'll walk through them with you.