The original plan was to make two Hobbit movies, but after the release of the first one they decided to expand it to three. I think two movies would have been alright, although the whole thing was way too intense and violent and digital.
Also, don't worry too much about the writing itself, about whether it's good in a technical sense. There are plenty of successful authors who aren't great writers, but they are great storytellers, and that's the most important part.
That is basically how I wrote my bachelor's thesis right before the deadline: just sit down and write write write, then start the next day by editing the text from the previous day and again write write write. You do need to have an inkling of what you want to say, but otherwise it's a great way to keep going.
Edit: also, there are plenty of famous fiction writers who don't draft a book, but just start with an idea and see where it takes them. Obviously, this doesn't work for everyone or every book, but it's a valid way of working.
I don't think the "no patches" thing was all that true for PC games. I've been gaming since the first Fallout and for practically every game I could/had to download one or more patches from the official website. For multiplayer games like Warcraft 3 you had to make sure everyone was using the same patch. One of the major advantages of Steam was automating the update process.
I work an office job, but I tend to sleep 1 or 2 hours early in the evening and then stay up till 2 or 3 am. It's not really healthy, but it does give me more time to enjoy the quiet of night.
I think I spent 20 euros on a ring I thought was cute (and resizable, because I didn't know her ring size), and we later bought wedding rings together.
I also called her father beforehand, but more like "Hey, I thought you'd like to know that I'm planning to do this", and he was like "That's awesome, have fun!".
Thanks for all the interesting details!