Re: Common laundry question | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: rpdowds (rpdowdscomcast.net) | |
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2012 13:21:17 -0800 (PST) |
We are 32 units in an urban neighborhood; our land was expensive, and accordingly none of our units is the style of stand-alone single family. Most are "flats" or apartments in multi-family apartment buildings (one of which is the common house), and less than half are in a three-story-plus-basement attached townhouse format. Each residential floor in the apartment buildings has a common washer and dryer of large capacity and commercial quality — a set-up shared among the roughly four or five units on that floor. Machines are maintained and replaced out of a fund that collects a per-use (per-load) charge. All the townhouses are fitted up with individual washer / dryer connections, and most have chosen to buy their own equipment. A couple, however, have chosen to dodge the expense of owning machines, and instead bring laundry over to the common house machines. The whole thing seems to work quite well, especially because the apartment dwellers can step outside their doors and find the washer / dryer just a few yards away (no dragging laundry up and down stairs!). But I can readily understand how families with children would much prefer to have machines conveniently on premises. My suggestion as both an architect and a member would be: (1) Plan on some conveniently located, community-owned machines somewhere. (2) Design in hook-ups for 3- and 4-bedroom units — AND, if at all possible, build these hook-ups into the main sleeping floor, NOT the basement. But, (3) For the smaller studios, or 1- and 2-bedrooms (if you have any), think twice about committing precious floor area to a privatized washer / dryer. R Philip Dowds AIA Cornerstone Cohousing Cambridge, MA ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ellen Keyne Seebacher" <elle [at] pobox.com> To: "Cohousing-L" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 10:51:49 PM Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Common laundry question On Fri, Nov 30, 2012 Bob Bernstein wrote: > We are just beginning to consider things like whether or not we want > laundry facilities in our homes as well as the Common House. I do > not have children, but while growing up my family had to walk > through the Laundry Room to get the Garage, and it seemed like every > time we left or entered the house we switched loads of laundry from > the washer to the dryer and/or emptied the dryer. Laundry for a > family of five was a never ending task. I would like to hear from > families raising children what it is like living w/o a washer and > dryer in your house, or put another way what is it like having to do > laundry for a family in the Common House? My kids are 10 and 14, and there is NO WAY you could ever get me to give up my washer and dryer to do laundry in the Common House, even if I were fully abled (which I am not -- I use a cane). I'm constantly starting or moving or emptying loads of laundry; if I had to traipse over to the Common House to do it I'd be living there instead. :} And I'm especially grateful for my own washer and dryer during periods of household illness. When someone has a stomach bug, you want laundry capability Right Here and Right Now, not in a pile several houses away waiting hours to be washed. :} -- Ellen Keyne Seebacher elle [at] pobox.com _________________________________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at: http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
- Re: Common laundry question, (continued)
- Re: Common laundry question Sharon Villines, November 30 2012
- Re: Common laundry question Lautner, Patricia, November 30 2012
- Re: Common laundry question Sharon Villines, November 30 2012
- Re: Common laundry question rpdowds, December 19 2012
- Re: Common laundry question Sharon Villines, November 30 2012
- Re: Common laundry question Ellen Keyne Seebacher, December 18 2012
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