Cohousing-L Mailing List: An alternative to loans for the commonhouse

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

At Sharingwood, the commonhouse was financed by a common assessment on all
owners and buy member loans which were repaid, with interest, from future
income. We also built most of the building ourselves, using member talents
and labor. It was a big project, and we accomplished it without having any
sort of work requirement, just pure volunteer interest. It was a really
great adventure and a lot of good fun and memories. I would do it again that
way myself, but then I enjoy working with my hands and am not afraid to get
dirty. I personally put in 200 hours of time into the project doing various
tasks. I took 3 days off work to do some all day work parties, like
foundation and roofing. I think the whole thing cost us $135,000, although I
could be wrong, it may have been cheaper.

Rob Sandelin
Northwest Intentional Communties Association
Building a better society, one neighborhood at a time