Re: Exercise in custom home design or exercise in community? | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: RowenaHC (RowenaHCcs.com) | |
Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2000 06:54:19 -0700 (MST) |
In a message dated 2/18/00 9:52:26 AM Eastern Standard Time, zabaldo [at] earthlink.net writes: << > Is it really taken as a given by most cohousing group members that they > will be able to have their own custom-designed house? Was this ever > discussed among the prospective members before joining the group? Or was it > just taken as a given? >> At CambridgeCoho we thought we had reached an understanding. The members had a lot of input into the original design. The size and type of units reflected the needs of the group - ranging from studios to large four bedroom town-houses with basements. Costs were estimated on a basic unit which included wall-to-wall carpeting, painted kitchen cabinets, etc. and we had a wide variety of "upgrade" options available for floors, cabinets, kitchen and bath, hardware, built-in light fixtures, etc. which could be changed at fixed prices. Everyone consensed that minimal modifications would be permited and each homeowner got an hour with the architect to settle on those changes and that if people wanted to make major changes they should buy the basic unit or an unfinsihed unit and carry out the modifications on their own nickel later. Well, of course, initially a few people pushed and took up hours of the architect's time. Others saw changes being made so then they wanted changes too. As a result our design completion was significantly delayed to the point where we missed the weather window and lost most of a year of construction (this is New England). Several of us had sold our homes and ended up camping out in rooms or apartments with all our stuff in storage for up to seven months! The architect felt put upon with 40 households demanding customization and didn't put as much time as he should into checking things such as working drawings and oversight - BAD news. The developers who were also members allowed this to go on - partly because they wanted to change their own unit, I suspect. I put a lot of the blame for our cost overrun and other problems down to the failure to enforce the "no changes" rule. Even though we tried to charge individual unit owners for the cost of changes there was no way to monitize the increased costs to the group. There is no question that permitting substantial changes other than to fit and finish kinds of items will result in increased costs and delays and will stymie any attempts at affordability (if that is still a goal). And then, after all, several of the households changed units, dropped out, new ones came... In the end, I don't think there is any difference in satisfaction between those who demanded total redesign and those who made only minor changes. I love my unit, even though it has several design flaws which one of these days I may get around to redoing (as a member of the Development Oversight Committee I obeyed the rules and fought a hopeless rearguard effort against the wholesale changes that the architect and developer were permitting!) If you are dealing with a lot development (we are urban, dense, connected) and have a lot of members demanding customization, maybe you should just go with custom built. That would not preclude those with more limited ambitions and budgets from getting together to hire a builder to do a few "standard" units and reap the savings. Rowena CambridgeCoho
- Re: Exercise in custom home design or exercise in community?, (continued)
- Re: Exercise in custom home design or exercise in community? Ann Zabaldo, February 18 2000
- RE: Exercise in custom home design or exercise in community? Rob Sandelin, February 18 2000
- Re: Exercise in custom home design or exercise in community? Howard Landman, February 18 2000
- Re: Exercise in custom home design or exercise in community? Diane Simpson, February 18 2000
- Re: Exercise in custom home design or exercise in community? RowenaHC, February 19 2000
- Re: Exercise in custom home design or exercise in community? Kay Argyle, February 25 2000
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