Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Ratio of Common House size to Unit Size

[Diane Simpson (coho]

We're planning 30. And I sent the message out because one person
in our group was worried that the common house size seemed extravagant
when compared to other cohousing groups.  Supposedly we will have the
second-largest common house in the country if we go with this size.

--D(:^]
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
On Tuesday, March 11, 2003, at 11:06 AM, Mabel Liang wrote:

> Diane,
>
> I'd have to do some calculating to figure out the answer to your 
> question,
> because our "common house" is in several different places.  But I'm 
> quite
> confused by your question.  I think you'd also want to know about the
> _number_ of units in a community.  I'd expect a community with 6 units 
> (the
> one that Chuck and Katie originally found in Denmark) to have a much
> smaller common house than one with 40 units.  The other night we had 3
> activities scheduled for after dinner.  Larger numbers of residents 
> makes
> it more likely that there'll be more activities, and more need for 
> common
> space.
>
> I also suspect that "average size" isn't a great indicator.  I know 
> that
> some of the people here at Cornerstone with smaller units felt a 
> greater
> need for Christmas decorations in the common house, because they didn't
> have room for a tree in their own unit.  People with smaller units may 
> feel
> more squeezed, regardless of the size of the other units.
>
> How many _units_ are you planning?
>
>                                                 -- Mabel :-)
>
> Cornerstone Village Cohousing
> North Cambridge, MA
>
> At 10:57 PM 3/10/03 -0500, Diane Simpson wrote:
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > I'm doing some research to figure out if communities with smaller 
> > units
> > have larger common houses.
> >
> > Our average unit size is 825 square feet
> > Our common house is programmed to be 4800 square feet
> >
> > So our units average about 17% the size of our common house.
> > Does this common house size seem about right? Too large? Too small?
> > I am not looking to find out if it seats the correct number of people.
> > I am simply trying to figure out where it is on the scale of
> > common house sizes overall in relation to all the other cohousing
> > communities out there.
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > --Diane(:^]
> >
> > JP COHOUSING  617-524-6614
> > P.O. BOX 420 BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS
> > HTTP://WWW.JPCOHOUSING.ORG
> > "The people who surround you define the qualify of your life."
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Cohousing-L mailing list
> > Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
> > http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L
> Mabel Liang
> mabel [at] twomeeps.com
> _______________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list
> Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L

_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L