Re: Reality Questions for our new Common House!
From: Rebecca Reid (rreidcohousing.com)
Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 13:45:48 -0800 (PST)
We are in a pretty rural area and didn't lock our commonhouse for years. It was very nice having it always open. Then it became obvious that it had been discovered--not that things were stolen, but bikes were used and broken, I forget what all else. So we started locking it at night. Now it is locked from about 10 to about 6 every night. One person's job is the locking up, another does the unlocking. Inside the commonhouse the sauna and the exercise rooms have locks, and the guestrooms. Each guest is given the key to their room and a key to the outside doors. We have a room off the foyer which houses mailboxes, a whole wall of upper lower coathooks, and people leave boots on mats under the coats. It does get very chaotic when there are a lot of people, but that rarely happens--just big parties and such. Regular dinner hours don't seem to be too much of a problem.
Rebecca
Pioneer Valley
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Message: 1
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 8:41:50 -0600
From: <maryvk [at] tellink.net>
Subject: [C-L]_ Reality Questions for our new Common House!
To: "cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Message-ID: <20090117084150.26ZBN.52070.root@webfep16>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

We are moving into our Common House within the months. Yippee! Here are a few questions for experienced cohousing dwellers. Might as well start with lessons learned.

Do you lock your Common House?  If so, describe the circumstances.
We are in a very rural, almost no crime area but some of our new neighbors and guests are city dwellers.

How do you hang coats and store wet and muddy boots?
We need to accommodate 50-70 people. We have a great mudroom foyer but decided not to develop built in's etc. until the construction company left the premise. We'd love to do hooks especially for children but how can you do so many???? And mats for boots are great but again it seems like it would end up a pile?

Thank you for your ongoing support. We encourage you to visit us when you are in New England.

Mary Kaplan
Nubanusit Neighborhood & Farm


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