RE: housing options- diverse can work
From: Larry Landrum (llandrumusit.net)
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2000 08:40:51 -0700 (MST)
<bigger><bigger>Ron's comments about conflict over housing types, makes
me think that leaving the option for people to build custom within
architectural guidelines even if most of the project uses standard types
could save a lot of emotional stress and time.  If say 6 units were to be
customized with the other 24 using a standard set of three or four plans,
how much would this raise the cost to the standardized units and how?


Larry Landrum

New River Valley Cohousing

Blacksburg, VA

</bigger></bigger>Very close to choosing a site and an architectural
team


At 12:07 AM 2/11/00 -0600, Rob Sandelin wrote:

>If you are trying to keep to a tight group budget, and build out all 
at

>once, I would advise severely limiting the floor plans and then be
HARDCORE

>about change orders later. Avoid the custom house syndrome. As Chris
Hanson

>says, its usually cheaper to remodel after you build than to do a 
dozen

>change orders. With paint you can acheive a great deal of visual
variety,

>and site design elements other than housing, like courtyards, entries,

>plantings can make a lot of visual differences without costing you much
at

>all.

>

>I do agree with Lynn that whether your houses are all different, or all
the

>same, it will have no effect on your relationships living together.
However,

>if you are not careful, the decision making conflicts you will get in
will

>indeed effect your relationships. This is not a good time to not have a
good

>group process and conflict setups in place.

>

>Sell your community by the relationships between the people, let real
estate

>and housing styles be a distant second choice for those who join you.
The

>more you can let go of Housism, the easier your design stuff will be,
and

>the happier you will be as a group later, because your energy will be
spent

>on more rewarding things. The biggest area of conflicts come over
housism

>detailing which in the end, you will all agree, was a really stupid
waste of

>your time and life energy.

>

>You will have to make trade-offs against a budget, significant ones

>sometimes against other values like environmental stuff. But a house is
just

>walls and a roof. There is no perfect solution, things your neighbors
love,

>you may hate, and back. And if you use consensus, you can spend HUGE
amounts

>of time discovering that there is no best solution whether the tile is
green

>or blue, and so consensus does not work here. Design elements are
personal,

>and doing personal choices against a group is going to leave you with 
a

>fairly large amount of dissatisfaction all around. The sooner you can
laugh,

>and let go of that stuff, the happier you will be. The really foolish
ones,

>that absolutely can't let go, will leave you at this point, because
they

>will have discovered, at your groups expense, that they can't be

>collaborators on their house design. Heck, Married couples get divorced
over

>this stuff all the time.

>

>So learn to let go, often, with grace, and with good humor. Capture 
the

>angst, and encourage others to let go too. Remember why you are doing
this

>(and I hope its not because you always wanted to be real estate
developer).

>And for heavons sake, don't forget to congratulate yourselves,
acknowlege

>your work, and have more parties. Design phase is when you need the
highest

>level of group cohesion. There will be too many meetings, and you will
need

>to steer people into parties when ever you can do so. Having GREAT

>facilitators in your group can save you here.

>

>Too many groups loose people here, especially new comers. They join, see
a

>bunch of unhappy, stressed and conflicted people and go, YUCK! Who'd
want to

>live there?

>

>Remember your timeframe. Ask yourself, will this really matter in two
years?

>Will I care whether the roof drain color is brown or gray? Will
fighting

>about all this stuff make me happy to live here, or will I hold
resentments

>about this stuff?

>

>Rob Sandelin

>Northwest Intentional Communities Association

>Building a better society, one neighborhood at a time

>

>> -----Original Message-----

>> From: cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org

>> [mailto:cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org]On Behalf Of Lynn Nadeau

>> Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2000 7:19 AM

>> To: Multiple recipients of list

>> Subject: Re: housing options- diverse can work

>>

>>

>> I can't tell you what the impact of diverse housing is on the
development

>> aspect of the project. I'm sure others will address that. But I can

>> address the "psychological" part.

>>

>> I can reassure you that diverse levels of size or fanciness or style

>> don't need to have any effect at all on community. At RoseWind we 
are

>> about as diverse as you can get, being a lot development model. Some
of

>> us live in 800 sq feet, and others in 3000 sq feet. (At Sharingwood,

>> another lot development model, one fellow lives in a 10x10 ft cabin,

>> among big fancy houses.)  Some have cedar siding, some plywood; some
have

>> oak floors, some cement, some have gargoyles and carvings and wild

>> fantasy bits, and others are stark plain. A dome lives next to a
stucco,

>> to a stick-frame, to a strawbale. Doesn't make any difference in how
we

>> treat each other. We respect each other's choices.

>>

>> Another way our diverse housing works, is that those of us with
larger

>> houses can host gatherings, or guests --- and my basement seems to be
a

>> magnet for people's bulky computer-shipping boxes!

>>

>> So it seems the question is, is there a simple way to move the burden
of

>> extra time and money to the person for whom additional features are
worth

>> it? If they pay for the difference, what difference should it make to
the

>> others? Visual variety is pleasant for everybody. Variety of house
sizes

>> and types also increases the breadth of market for eventual
resales---

>> some people will only buy something small and simple, and others 
will

>> only buy larger or fancier. Communities also sometimes experience

>> eventual swapping around among members -- after some years, some
families

>> shrink, others grow, but people still want to stay in the community.

>> Different size units are useful that way.

>>

>> Good luck-

>> Lynn Nadeau

>> RoseWind Cohousing, Port Townsend

>> (We may be "slo-track" but the drywall is going up in the common
house,

>> and our last two lots are about to be bought! )

>>

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