Re: Choosing Colors
From: mark harfenist (markbellinghamcohousing.org)
Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 14:51:00 -0700 (PDT)
There does seem to be a bit of a disconnect between the way things might work in an ideal world and what often turns out to be the case. On the basis of my limited experience living in and observing cohousing communities, most residents have neither the time, skills, energy nor interest in doing all the various maintenance tasks which come up. This means that there will always be choices made as to which tasks community members will do, and which will be hired out.

I do not hear Liz saying that members of her community don't want to get their hands dirty; I hear her saying that their priorities lie elsewhere. This is an important distinction, and one which all communities need to deal with on an ongoing basis. There may well be communities which decide to do their own exterior painting; if and when you do live in cohousing, you may be instrumental in arranging that your community be one of these. But I would recommend not being too doctrinaire about this aspect of community life too far in advance.

FWIW, I spent much of my adolescence and most of my adulthood in the building trades. I am not in the least afraid of getting my hands dirty. Often, however, this is not how I prefer to spend my (limited) free time.

Hope that helps.

Mark Harfenist
Bellingham Cohousing

On Monday, May 3, 2004, at 01:32 PM, Matt Lawrence wrote:

On Mon, 3 May 2004, Elizabeth Stevenson wrote:

Oh, Matt, you don't live in cohousing, do you?

No, I don't.

Sorry, that was a wee bit condescending! It's just that painting 25 or more
units is incredibly time-consuming and a complete impossibility for a
community full of people with day jobs. In the time it would take me to paint my house, a contractor could paint 5 houses or more, and do it better.
It just doesn't make sense.

Why?  Why can a contractor do it faster?  Better equipment?  If so,
splitting the cost of the equipment 25 ways can make it quite affordable. Or can the contractor do it faster by doing less? Spraying one colour is
fast.  However, the day labour sometimes does really crappy work.

Also, we have two-storey houses, and it would involve a significant risk that many homeowners are not willing to take. And what about the people who
aren't physically capable of doing it? Do they have to pay more, just
because they are disabled? We're not talking about each homeowner-painter
doing one house, we're talking more like two houses. It's completely
unworkable. The only instance that it would make sense for homeowners to DIY
would be lot development models.

So?  Not everybody needs to work on the second floor.  I'd be perfectly
willing to, particularly with good equipment. It wouldn't take the entire
community to do the painting.

It sounds to me like you've got a community full of people who don't want
to get their hands dirty doing work in the building trades.  That's a
valid way to live, bu not really what I'm interested in.

-- Matt
The American Non-Sequiteur Society: We may not make sense, but we do like
pizza.

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