Sweat Equity/broader perspective
From: Racheli Gai (rachelisonoracohousing.com)
Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2003 11:00:03 -0600 (MDT)
I completely agree with what Rob says below.
Cohousing isn't an Island all on its own.  It's a part of a larger
movement, and IMO it's very useful to view it in that way. If we think of
ourselves as totally different and separate, we can't learn from the
experience of others (or have them learn from ours)...

R.


>My point to Elizabeth (?I think that was her name) was intended to
>encourage her to check out other options in addition to cohousing, since
>she seemed new to the concept. I have visited many non-cohousing
>communities that have done exactly what she seemed to be asking for,
>build your own house at low cost. I have been to wonderful communities
>where there is no cost, or little cost to live there in dollars, only
>sweat equity and work. I have slept in wonderful, custom hand made homes
>that were  delightful and inspiring, and done entirely without mortgages.
>I have been to several workshops about how to do such things, many of
>which were hosted by communities and were attended by community seeking
>people. These workshops go on all over and communities magazine often has
>listings of them.

> I have not yet heard of an entire build it yourself cohousing
>development yet, although there are some partial build it yourself
>cohousing groups, Sharingwood where I live being one. The Lot development
>model of cohousing seems to allow for this concept, although lots can be
>quite expensive and each community has its own set of expectations and
>agreements about what owner builders can build. It seems reasonable to
>include non-cohousing ideas as a response to a request for low income,
>build it yourself community housing, since this is obviously not a strong
>suit of the cohousing model.

>In my community travels I have met many well intentioned people with
>wonderful community dreams. 95% of them, never go anywhere with their
>dreams and this is sad. I think finding a community and living in it for
>a year, even if its NOT cohousing, will help anybody with community
>dreams understand many of the realities of community life and then be
>able to compare these realities with their dreams. Visiting as many
>communities as you can also will help community dreamers see and learn
>what has, and is being done in the world. I see regular ads for cohousing
>rentals, heck there's currently one available in my own community. There
>are dozens, if not hundreds of opportunities outside of cohousing to live
>in a community.

>Sorry if all this comes off as "attitude", but my perspective is much
>broader than just cohousing. If having a larger perspective than
>cohousing is not useful for a cohousing list, I can easily stop providing
>such.



>Rob Sandelin
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racheli [at] sonoracohousing.com (Racheli Gai)
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