Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Common House Usage Questions

[Mac & Sandy Thomson (ganesh]

Joe,

I'm responding to the whole list because I'd guess that other new forming
groups would perhaps find the info useful.

- Mac

-- 
Mac Thomson

Heartwood Cohousing
Southwest Colorado
http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com


 "Trust in Allah, but tether your camel."
                      - Middle Eastern Proverb
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On 10/01/03 Joe Nolan wrote:
> HANGING OUT
> Newbies here fantasize a lot about pleasant times "hanging out" in or
> around the CH during non-meal times. This almost never happens in FROG,
> even if someone announces that they are providing
> tea/bagels/newspapers/etc. Hard to get a critical mass.
> - Does it happen in your CH?
Not really.  We had the same kind of fantasizing during our design process:
"Once we live in cohousing we'll have lots of time for hanging out
together."  Wrong.  Life is just as hectic for most people as ever.
Probably the best hanging out happens before and after meals.  If it happens
before a meal it's because the cooks make it happen -- e.g.  Chips and salsa
and beer on the terrace an hour before the burrito dinner happens.

> - What are the "magnets" that draw people in?
We do get a lot of use out of our common house, but common meals are
probably the only big magnet.  We have lots of little magnets that bring
folks in, however, including home school cooperative classes, movies, ping
pong, yoga, exercise room, laundry, piano lessons, singing, meetings, guest
rooms, mail pick up, meditation, aerobics, foosball, parties, pool, sports
on TV, etc.

> - Does it depend on a visual connection from outdoor high-traffic areas?
Pretty much only activities on the terrace.

> - Laundry seems a likely nexus for socializing during non-busy times.
> Any success with enhancing the laundry experience, e.g. with ping-pong,
> comfy chairs, etc?
Not really.  People put the laundry in the machines and leave -- unless they
run into someone cooking or picking up their mail or . . . . . . .  One
exception is that some of us have been known to stick around and shoot a
game of pool if we get there and our load of laundry isn't quite finished
yet. 

> - What if any "Rec Room" amenities get used a lot, e.g. pool, ping-pong,
> air hockey, etc?
Probably the home theater the most.  Many of us don't have TV's in our
private homes so it's nice to have a quality set up in the CH to watch
movies, often with our neighbors.

Probably the next most used is just the carpeted open space for kids to play
and adults to do aerobics, yoga, drumming, etc.

The ping pong, foosball, and pool table are also somewhat popular, but our
kids here are still a little too young to appreciate them and the weather's
so dang nice here that we don't have as much excuse to seek indoor refuge.


> 
> QUIET PLAY & CRAFTS
> Another popular idea is that children can be involved in quiet
> activities such as art, crafts, puzzles, LEGOs, reading, etc. In FROG
> the play room is like an indoor playground (plus dress-ups) and is
> usually used in a loud boisterous manner, mainly after common meals or
> during meetings. Fragile or messy items have been removed due to
> experiences resulting from unsupervised use. The quieter activities seem
> to require an adult to initiate and oversee, e.g. we can have a Craft
> Night or Games Night if an adult makes the effort to organize it &
> ensure that cleanup happens.
> - Do children utilize your CH during non-busy (meal/mtg) times?
Somewhat (supervision/adult check-in required)

> - Is there a rule or system for supervision of children during busy times?
The dining room is for eating and conversation during meal times.  Other
activities (running, chasing, shouting, etc.) need to happen outdoors or in
the rec room.

> - Do quieter activities for children "work" in your CH?
For the girls they do.  :-)  (reading, puzzles, piano)

>  - If so, what is the key factor in enabling them to work?
> - Do quieter play & boisterous play require separate rooms in your
> experience?
Yes, I'd say so.

> 
> INTEGRATING CHILDREN
> - Any tips on what works for including children in daily activities such
> as cooking, laundry, cleanup?
Adult takes the initiative to be inclusive (and patient!).  Incorporated
into home school coop activities.

> - We have windows between play room & dining area in FROG, which works
> pretty well. What other space adjacencies/strategies have worked out
> well in CHs?
The window between the romp room and dining room ended up not working here
because the kids ended up not using the romp room.  When we designed the CH
we weren't sure if we'd be able to afford to finish the basement.  As it
turned out, we did finish it and ended up with a nice big rec room, which
the kids greatly preferred.  The romp room ended up as an adult exercise
equipment room so the window serves no purpose and is a wee bit of a
nuisance.  

Keep all rooms as flexible as possible!

> LIBRARY/MEDIA
> - Have you had success in sharing music CDs, videos, etc?
Yes.  We have both CD and video collections.  They're mainly for use within
the CH, but folks do take them home sometimes to listen to, watch, or copy.

> - Success with sharing computers, printer, fax, etc?
Haven't tried in the CH, although we often share/borrow such things within
private homes.

> - Success with TV/VCR?
Yes.
> 
> FLEX SPACE
> A popular idea here is to economize by making flexible spaces where
> furniture can be quickly stowed. In FROG, we have one room that works
> this way, and it gets used for meetings, wild play, and yoga.
> - What other uses for flexible space have you found & what makes them
> possible?
Some of the activities I've mentioned require us to move furniture out of
the way.  We don't ever really remove the furniture from the room, but
rather push and stack it up against the walls.  So I guess the key is to
simply have plenty of square footage, especially in the dining room and rec
room.

> 
> FITNESS EQUIPMENT
> - Good or bad experiences with sharing fitness machines, e.g. rowers,
> steppers, Cybex-style?
I think it's been good, but I'm not a user.

> 
> DISH ROOM
> My experience is that the noise & moisture associated with dishwashing
> necessitates a separate room adjacent to dining area.
> - Different experiences?
We have our dishwashing built into the main part of our kitchen, which is
all very open to the dining room.  We like the design and have had no
problems with noise or moisture.  We did go to great lengths to successfully
minimize noise in our dining room (i.e., Tectum) and we live in a dry
climate.

> 
> COMBINING FUNCTIONS
> To reduce cost and increase socializing, it is desirable to combine
> multiple functions into spaces. However, fear of noise problems,
> unsupervised children ,etc often drive us to separate the functions.
> Here I'm not talking "flex" spaces, but spaces with permanent
> furnitures/fixtures (e.g. laundry + fitness equip).
> - What functions have you successfully combined into one space?
The ability to keep noise from various activities separate is probably the
most important factor in allowing multiple activities to happen in the CH
simultaneously.  But that really wasn't your question.

The dining room (eating, dancing, yoga, meetings, etc) and our rec room
(movies, pool, ping pong, foosball, kids' play, aerobics, drumming, etc) are
our most flexible spaces, but our hearth room (meetings, piano, singing,
fireside chats, etc), 2nd guest bedroom (guests, quiet kids' play, 2nd VCR &
TV), terrace (eating, hanging out, music performances, etc), and craft room
(home school coop classes, sewing, other crafts, etc) are have multiple
functions, but not at the same time.

(You may think that we're TV nuts here because we have 2 TV set ups in the
CH, but not really.  One set up was completely donated - ee gads.  :-)  It
creates nice flexibility so if just one or two people are watching, they can
use the smaller 2nd guest bedroom for more privacy and not monopolize the
rec room.  It also allows us to show a kids' movie at the same time as an
adult movie on movie nights -- very nice.  I would guess that the 2 TV's
combined get maybe an hour per day of use.)


> 
> OFFICES
> Some in SONG are wary of negative impacts of private offices, especially
> for client-based businesses. FROG has had mainly good experiences with
> offices, after we solved a noise transmission problem.
> - What positive or negative effects has your community felt from private
> offices in (or external to) the CH?
> - What degree of separation seems best?
N/A

> 
> GREEN FEATURES
> - What ecologically sound features have worked well (e.g. solar cooker,
> herb garden, etc)?
Passive solar design, super insulation, very tight building, sustainably
harvested lumber, clothesline

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