Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Questions about co-housing from a new list member

[Chapel, Thomas (TKC4]

L;  Saw this just now on the coho list.  I live in Lake Claire Cohousing
and this is how we do it.  We encourage people to come by to share one
or more common meals or activities with us.  We eat together on Sunday
nites, and alos on Thu nites.  We have potlucks on Monday nites
preceding our meetings.  Folks interested ni cohousing can also feel
free to stay on for a meeting just to see how we make decisions and what
kind of decisions we have to make.  Our business meeting is 2nd Monday
of the month, 7:15ish.  But we have other gatherings on the 1st and 3rd
Mondays, mainly for community sharing etc.  Also, am sure lots of
residents would be happy to show you their homes.  When someone is
seriously interested in living here, we do ask/require that they attend
a certain number of events--meetings or meals--just so we know they got
a good sense.  We also ask them to read the Chuck and Kathleen (?)
seminal cohousing book.  As it happens we'll be on the Lake Claire Tour
of Homes this year--as we always are--and holding some open houses that
day along with the Land Trust which is adjacent to us. It's Sat 10/9 in
the afternoon.  But if you want to see us sooner, feel free to call me
at 404-378-6790.  By chance we do have a rare unit opening right now, so
might be an especially good time to hook up.  In general turnover has
been rare, although several folks are facing some job and life changes
in the next year or so that might take htme out of town.

Tom Chapel

-----Original Message-----
From: cohousing-l-bounces+tchapel=cdc.gov [at] cohousing.org
[mailto:cohousing-l-bounces+tchapel=cdc.gov [at] cohousing.org] On Behalf Of
Laura Jones
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2004 10:36 AM
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Subject: [C-L]_ Questions about co-housing from a new list member


Hi. I'm Laura and I live in metro Atlanta with my husband and 3 kids
(13, 9, and 4). There are two co-housing communities in Atlanta. We are
interested in both. However, we don't know anyone who lives in either
community.

What is the best way to get a feel for how a particular co-housing
community works on a day-to-day level as an outsider looking in?
Co-housing is different from subdivision living, in that there will be
much more interaction with our neighbors. That's great because that's
one of the things that attracted me to co-housing in the first place - a
sense of community that we don't have in our current location.

As a general question, what is the best way to determine how our family
would fit into a particular co-housing community?

I am most concerned with how our kids would fit in, and whether our
parenting styles would clash with those of the other families. Questions
that are tough to answer in just a short visit to a community. 

If you moved into an established co-housing development, can you please
share how you got a feel for the place prior to making the commitment to
live there? I've considered renting for a year, but that's probably not
feasible because we don't want the headache of renting out current
place....

Thanks-

Laura Jones


                
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