Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Common House Refrigerators

[Diana Steele (d-steele]

>To CoHousers With A Common House:
>We of Tierra Nueva CoHousing, aka Grell CoHousing Group, would like to know
>the capacity, dimensions, make and model of your common house
>refridgerators.  Also, How many people are they servicing or providing
>space for?  We are in the market for our refridgerator now and would
>appreciate any info you may have.  Thanks! Corrine of Tierra Nueva.

At the student housing cooperative where I am a chef and boarder, we have
gotten some very good deals on used commercial fridges.  A friendly
contractor in our neighborhood does a lot of restaurant rehab work, and
often has access to high-quality, slightly-used equipment at a fraction of
the original price.  If you want to save money but retain the large
capacity, it's a route you might consider.  (We currently have two small
commercial fridges and a residential-size freezer for 13 people--but unlike
cohousing, people don't have their own fridges in their rooms.)


An update on the Woodlawn Cohousing Community:

Last weekend we had 30 volunteers who bravely endured single-digit
temperatures to help measure and clean up the interior of the boarded-up
six-flat apartment building we own.  The building is in excellent shape,
structurally, despite ratty carpets, asbestos tiles and peeling paint.
Nice hardwood floors in great condition and no roof or wall leaks despite
being vacant for several years.

We have hired an architect, Sam Marts and Associates, and are planning to
have our first programming session in a couple of weeks.  We are trying to
avoid the chicken-egg syndrome (need money to hire an architect, but need
plans to get financing; need to buy land from the city to complete our
project, but need plans to negotiate with them) by pushing ahead on all
fronts at a sometimes-dizzying pace.

We are meeting every two weeks as a large group and weekly in small focus
groups (design education, recruitment, finance, community education and
special events).  We are planning an orientation session for new members on
Tuesday, Jan. 21, at 7 p.m. at 6101 S. Woodlawn Ave. (all Chicago-area
lurkers on Cohousing-L are welcome; send e-mail for more info.).  We plan
to show the RMCA video along with a selection of slides from Sacramento and
photo displays from our group.  We feel the combination gives a good
overview of cohousing, an introduction to urban cohousing and a sense of
what kinds of things WCC is trying to accomplish.

Diana