Cohousing-L Mailing List: New Web Site/Atlanta greetings

[Virginia Moreland (vmoreland]

I just happened to hit the web site today and was very impressed with the
new formatting.  All the photos are a great touch.  

While I'm here, a short update.

East Lake Commons is alive and well, if a little banged up and bruised.  I
moved in a week ago, the twelfth household to arrive on site.  It'll be at
least 15 by the end of the month. We've suffered over the last year from
many delays, construction problems, and a rather sad decline in the
relationships between some members and our developer.  The very first
move-ins faired the worst, since many did not have sufficient contingency
plans for moving delays.  Many factors contributed, and no one party is all
to blame. Some of it was just the extreme shortage of qualified
sub-constractors and even building materials that has hit building-boom
Atlanta pretty hard. 

Nothing that many of you have not been through before. Recently things have
started to come together better -- the developer has regrouped his forces,
the members know better what to expect and what to watch for in
construction review, and as the early traumas have healed we're starting to
feel the real benefits of community. Folks who approach closing and moving
now have ample support and experience to draw on.

The site is beautiful, our certified organic garden is thriving in its
second CSA season, and we have lots of passionate work going on regarding
things like watershed management, recycling, and forging alliances with the
surrounding neighborhoods.  We have only gotten as far as the foundation of
the first common house, because there is a short-fall in funds needed to
complete it.  A small task force of members is currently wrestling us to
the ground to come to grips with this and decide how to proceed.

We struggle with our size already - 44 out of 67 units are under contract,
meetings are often 25 to 30 people.  There is a large population of members
to draw on, and the usual uneven distribution of effort and energy. We have
a lot of terrific folks, and enough burning souls to spell each other from
time to time. We will somehow proceed soon with the first common house -
all of us will share it for a time, learn how we use it, maybe try
sub-group dinners on different days of the week.  Many of us still believe
we new two common houses, others are skeptical and want to wait and see.
(Yes, we all know the established cannon of cohousing, but not everyone
accepts the experience of others as their guide!) We have seen the reality
that all 67 households are joined by physical proximity, shared history,
and myriad decisions that cannot be separated into two phases.  So, the
experiment and debate continues...  

We're clearly still under construction, but visitors are very welcome! I
have guest quarters and would be happy to host touring cohousers or
potential members.  Still over twenty homes available for sale - a few of
them are the remaining units in phase one and could be completed within
several months. One of them's right next door to me - an interior two
bedroom townhouse with a peaceful view of our wooded side.  It's a great
location, but two previous purchasers have had deals fall through because
of outside complications.

Well, this update wasn't short after all, but I've been wanting to bring
you all up to date.  The resources from TCN are invaluable. Even when I
can't keep up with the listmail, I feel better just seeing it arrive and
knowing you are all out there.  I'm hoping that several of our members will
make it to this fall's meeting in Amhearst.  

Ginny Moreland,
now living at East Lake Commons!

105 Dancing Fox Road
Decatur, GA 30032
(404) 377-5444
       





At 12:17 PM 7/26/99 -0500, Zev Paiss wrote:
>Dear Susan,
>
>Thank you so much for the incredible renovation of the TCN web site.  It
>truly shows the many wonderful aspects of this innovative concept.
>
>I hope coho-l readers will check it out.  For you coho-l readers who are
>not yet a member of the network, this is a great time to start.  
>