Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Common House Size

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> How big is yours and how many households do you have?

I would say that more important than size is to leave the space  
flexible until you learn how you really use it. People think they will  
really use a meditation room or a workshop or a dance and yoga room  
and too often they don't.

Unless they are actually using such a room before they move in, it is  
unlikely that they will use it after move-in. The fantasy is that we  
would do it if only we had the space. The reality, after working with  
artists for 25 years, is that if you want to do it, you make the  
space. If you haven't made the space so far, you are unlikely to use  
it when someone gives it to you.

I've seen exhibiting professional artists who worked in a corner of a  
dining room on a table 2 x3 feet painting flowers on a shelf beside  
her table. A painter doing 5 foot square paintings on the wall above  
his bed -- a mattress on the floor. He had his finished paintings  
stored hanging from the ceiling, using a complicated system of ropes  
to get them up there horizontally against the ceiling.  Since he lived  
in Manhattan, his bedroom was one of two rooms in the apartment -- the  
other was a kitchen/bath.

So space is not the issue -- it's how you really use it.

I wonder if temporary walls are a good in between solution? Or  
building part of the building with room to expand? (And the  money  
included in the original budget and saved.)

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing,Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org