[Linda Buquet]

Yes they can just be totally separate. That's what I did.

My main site at 5staraffiliateprograms.com is all done with Dreamweaver.

My blog is on a subdomain and all done with WP affiliate-blogs.5staraffiliateprograms.com/

So I'm doing exactly what you are trying to do.

I paid someone to set up WP for me several years ago, so can't tell you exactly how to do it though.
I'm not all that technical and have more money than time, so while I do all my own regular site maintenance with Dreamweaver and know my way around WP, when it comes to installation and getting all the plugins and stuff to work right I'd rather pay my WP guy to do it for me.