Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Retrofit cohousing

[Sanda Everette (severette]

Hi Kevin and everyone else:

I have written before about the project we are attempting to do in San
Mateo, CA.  My updated website was posted last night at
http://www.wordrunner.com/sanda/welcome.htm with no links to it yet from
cohousing.org.  We are due to close escrow the end of this month on one
4 plex building and hope to be speaking to the owner of the neighboring
4 plex (in which we currently live) in the next few months.  We are
actively seeking partners.  We are still not sure of the legal structure
but will work on that when the partners show up.  We have had several
communications from folks interested in renting but we need coowners,
too, particularly by the time that we are ready to buy the second
building.

For those of you in the local area, we are excited about hosting an
urban permaculture course here in March.  (See link from site.) It will
really give our gardens a good start.  Organic gardening is one of the
main focuses of our project.

Looking forward to hearing more from other retrofit groups.

Sanda

snip
> 
> At 07:19 PM 12/14/97 -0600, you wrote:
> >I'm Jerry from a new Portland, OR retrofit housing group looking for a
> >name, and I like the idea of identifying ourselves in posts, which was
> >happening for a while on the coho list...
> snip
> 
> Jerry,
> 
> Congratulations on your new retrofit housing group.  Please tell us about it.
> How many houses?  Are they all contiguous?  Do you plan on growing?  How
> big are the yards? When were the houses originally built?  Do the kitchens
> face the backyards/common space?  What type of legal considerations have
> you made - eg. easements on yards?  Have you developed yourselves into a
> legal institution (N Street still hasn't though is closer to making the
> decision).  Do you have a common house or plan on getting one?  How do you
> pay for it?
> 
> A number of us think that retrofit cohousing offers an enormous opportunity
> to expand the movement and your story will be interesting.  Thanks.
> 
> Kevin Wolf
> N Street Cohousing