Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: design review

[Berrins (Berrins]

Here's another couple of cents...

Good luck, Marya.  That's sounds like the process we went through with our 
architects and with our site designers, and it turned out relatively well.

At Pathways (which is under construction) we went the "bulk purchase" route 
at virtually every point to save money.  We decided to have four different 
house plans, one for each number of bedroom sized house (1,2,3 & 4 bedrooms) 
and then allowed customizations off of the basic plan (mirror image of the 
basic plan, minor interior wall changes, add a couple of feet here or there, 
bay windows, etc).  This saved us a bunch on architect fees and simplified it 
a lot for the builders, which also holds down costs.  We then narrowed down 
choices to just a few in many areas; heating, flooring (wood and/or 
linoleum), interior trim, exterior paint and trim colors, and many other 
details. Some areas we didn't get any individual options; for example, we 
chose just one type of siding (Hardiplank) and all the interior walls will be 
painted one color.  The builder guided us as to what areas we could save 
money on and how many choices in each area. 

Narrowing down the number of choices (ie, how many different kinds of 
flooring to choose from and which ones) was often difficult (especially for 
house colors- oy, you wouldn't believe...!) and took the ability to "give up" 
on any favorite color or wood that didn't end up as a choice.  But we did it, 
and with the customizations, different size houses and different combinations 
of duplexes (1 & 3 bedroom, 3 & 2, etc and different orientations of the 
units to each other in each duplex), I don't think we have any two duplexes 
(or units, for that matter) that are exactly the same.  The result will be an 
overall unity of style with a lot of variation.

Kate-  Any future changes to the exterior of the units and the yards will 
have to go through a design review process.  Will this limit individuality 
and eccentricity?  Probably, but more likely for practical rather than 
esthetic matters.  For example, with clustered houses, putting on an addition 
may block someone else's sunlight, and those poisonous plantings near the 
playground may not be a good idea.  However, after the numerous house color 
discussions, offending someone else's esthetics could be an issue.  This is 
where it could get tricky.  Anyone in an existing community care to comment?

    Roger