Cohousing-L Mailing List: Twin Cities, MN -Monterey Cohousing

[Judy (BAXTER%55317]

SINCE it is much on my mind, these days, I thought I'd tell you a little about
the status at Monterey CoHousing - you may conceivably know of people in
Minnesota or the Twin Cities Area who would be interested.  Why not?

After a 13-month (part 1) process of hope, despair, and elation , in Dec 92, We
bought 2.7 acres of land, just 6 blocks outside the Minneapolis boundary, to
the west.  The land has a wooded ravine, is next to a park, and otherwise is in
a pretty densely settled area - apartments, townhouses, and single family
homes.  We are converting the existing building into 8 apartment-like units,
and working on plans for  16 additional townhouses. It's a beautiful building
and a beautiful site, just at MY limits in terms of being at the edge of the
city, but not feeling suburban. There will be 1 or 2 of the existing units for
sale (people who prefer a townhouse) and 10 or 11 of the new townhouses
available (rest are spoken for).  We are still discussing the issue of sizes of
units and marketability - hence (in part) my survey. I wonder if people are
willing to have smaller units because of cost of building and of common
facilities.  Several in our group are reconsidering their needs as costs become
clearer.  In Denmark, apparently people are willing to take smaller units. 
We're not sure about here.  Tho we do have 4 small units (occupied) in the
existing building, 370-470 sq. feet.

Common House 
large kitchen, modest size dining room with fireplace and a couple of adjacent
rooms we will probably use for overflow, as well as the large corridor.  This
is all on ground/basement level (we're on a hill) and is part of the existing
building we bought, an elegant, Georgian brick building with columns out front,
large lawn, and 2.7 acres including a wooded ravine.  It was built in 1924 as a
retirment/nursing home for Christian Scientist, actually they called it a
hospital, apparently.  

The next floor has a very large, living room with bay windows and window seats,
fireplace, entry area, etc, a cherry paneled "library" with only one built in
bookcase and a fireplace.  Those are our common spaces.  That floor also has
two small units, 2 rooms plus bathroom, plus 1 medium and 1 very small guest
room.  The uppper two floors have respectively 4 units (2 small, 2 medium) and
2 units (large).  

Oh yes, we also have a porch on the 1st floor, and a number of
miscellaneous rooms on the lowest level that we haven't had time to decide what
to do with.  

Plans call for a new multipurpose room to serve as larger dining room, dance
floor, play space, etc.  

Price? Depends a lot on size and the final mix of sizes (smaller units are more
expensive to build per sq foot, but cost less per unit).  We have a preliminary
estimate of $80/sq foot, finished cost, including walkway, 2 car tuck-under
garage. That may change.

The group is quite diverse in occupations (homemakers,doctor, computer analysts,
accountant, teachers, technician, child care worker, health care analyst,
epidemiologist (not me), therapists, secretaries.  Ages of kids so far range
from in utero to 13, adults about mid-30's to 66.  We also have several
"physically or mentally challenged" (is that the phrase?) individuals.  It's a
good group - I wish we had more time to play together.  But we are doing
developement and rehab and working out how to live together, all at once!

My feeling, after hearing about lots of groups, is that this is a great
opportunity.  So tell your friends. We're having an open house for prospects,
this weekend.

Judy Baxter, Monterey Cohousing Community, Twin Cities Area, Mpls/St.Paul MN
        (Mococo)                baxter%epivax [at] vx.cis.umn.edu
Twin Cities CoHousing Network Voice Mail  612-930-7580
 Voice Mail for Monterey Cohousing - 612-930-7554