Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: New View as a model of possibility

[Coreen Plewa (plewac]

Lavinia,
I invite you to consider ElderGrace in Santa Fe, NM.  We have 10 single
women in our first 22 homes; we are doing 28 small houses, very
environmentally friendly.  As we are new construction, we are shooting for
LEED certification.  Our developer is the Santa Fe Community Housing Trust,
a not-for-profit specializing in making home ownership affordable by setting
up secondary mortgages to cover what primary owner cannot.  Santa Fe has an
almost perfect climate.  Read everything on our website at
www.eldergrace.org .
Coreen


-----Original Message-----
From: Lavinia Weissman [mailto:subscriptions [at] workecology.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 12:32 PM
To: Cohousing-L
Subject: [C-L]_ New View as a model of possibility

As a former visitor to New View, I have to say it is a very very special
community and excellent place for families. It's unfortunate that they
have so little space that accommodates single people because the place,
space and people are great.  New View is challenged to create aging in
place, because the homes are very large and I am sure they will learn
something in this regard.

I have really enjoyed getting to know the Cohousing communities thru this
list and want to thank everyone who contacted me. I also appreciate the
amount of information that is shared and am learning to filter through it
as best I can because it can add to my heavy volume of email.

I am finding in my own research and journey that there is not enough
cohousing available for single people that gives you a sense of home,
space, light and green. At dinner in Harmony Village this week, where I am
living temporarily--I told a wonderful resident there that I respect, that
I really want to have what I want and feel quite selfish about it.  Yet it
seems that finding it as a single person is very challenging. It is not
just about affordable. It's about light, space, ecology and more.

I thought cohousing might be a way in which I could get more economical
with my life in terms of ecology and in some respects, I am finding that
this is available from non cohousing green real estate which is also hard
to find.

I am also very aware of the challenge of becoming a member to an existing
community where there is lots of history, deep connection and support
between people that no one new would immediately expect.

I am really looking to see how I build that sense of community for myself
and not find myself so overwhelmed by being a new person all the time,
which I am expert with. I have had to for personal reasons move cross
country twice and now I am trying to describe what I am doing as moving to
give myself the home I want with some community centric experience that
anyone single with out a family wants for themselves.

As I have wandered around the country at this point and connected into
various communities, I am learning it is still very challening for single
women no matter where they live (co-housing or not). This is probably true
for men and I was told in Boston by a Jewish Research project that single
men who don't date or seek companionship often find it very hard just to
reach out. So without stereotyping or other, I am  still trying to find
away to move into a community and make my home and do it with the vision
of having a green home, spacious in light, energy, and sustainable.  I am
learning to steer clear of terms like economical or affordable because the
picture of that really varies based on the individuals experience, city,
urban or rural.

At present I have found nothing in Hudson Valley or in New England that
works and to some extent the East Coast still feels like home.  The
priority no matter has to be green and environmentally caring, since my
health depends on that. This also means consideration to structuring my
home from EMF exposure, because I am one of those people and wifi through
an entire village or power lines will just make me ill.

I put this email out as one more gesture before I finally decide if I am
simply going to rent cheap for a while and quietly keep at my search for
my own home.

Best,
Lavinia
On Tue, April 24, 2007 2:08 pm, Jim Snyder-Grant wrote:
> Hello coho list:
>
> We want to share some new information on the home sale at New View
> Cohousing in Acton, MA. Since we announced the upcoming home sale last
> week, a few people have expressed strong interest. Also, the owners
> heard directly from a very interested potential buyer. As a result,
> they have decided to begin considering offers immediately. We
> encourage anyone who is interested to visit New View and see the home
> soon so you can decide if it's right for you.
>
> The home is a large, lovely 3+ bedroom home with beautiful views of a
> wildflower meadow. The asking price is $650,000. More details can be
> found here: http://20halfmoonhill.com
>
> The house can be seen, by appointment, on Thursday, Saturday and
> Sunday this week. To arrange an appointment to see the house, please
> call Marcia Lewin-Berlin at (978) 264-0466 (home) or (978) 621-1895
> (cell) and leave messages in both places if she doesn't answer. The
> owners can be reached directly at jennybixby [at] sbcglobal.net and
> kenrosenfeld [at] sbcglobal.net. They check email frequently.
>
> A good time to visit New View is during the potluck meals, which are
> held in the Common House at 6:15 pm:
>   Friday 4/27
>   Sunday 4/29
>   Friday 5/4
>   Sunday 5/6
> PLEASE let us know in advance when you would like to visit New View by
> filling out our contact form at: http://www.newview.org/contact_us.htm
> .
>
> We are still planning to hold an "Open House" on May 12th and 13th.
> Even if the timing or house isn't right for you now, this will be a
> good opportunity to learn more about New View.
>
> We look forward to hearing from you and talking about what it's like
> living here! For more information on New View visit our web site at:
> http://www.newview.org.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Jim Salem, Franny Osman, and Jim Snyder-Grant
> for the New View Membership Committee
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
>
>
>


-- 
Lavinia Weissman
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617.461.0500

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