Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: housing options

[Berrins (Berrins]

In a message dated 2/9/2000 11:22:03 PM, sundog [at] gburgtimes.com writes:

<< We at Hundredfold are about to make a BIG DECISION. We are currently
weighing the pros and cons of building all-one-style homes.  >>

We all did touch on this a while back, but maybe not this question 
specifically.

When you say "style", do you mean size of home (eg square footage, number of 
bedrooms), or a general style, like cape vs. victorian vs. post and beam, 
etc.?  If you mean the former, then I would have to say that having different 
size homes with different numbers of bedrooms is pretty much necessary.  At 
Pathways (move-ins start in less than two weeks!) we have four different 
sized homes with one basic plan for each size (1,2,3 and 4 bedroom), with 
agreed upon customizations.  But I suppose you mean the latter; different 
styles of houses.

If one person gets to have their own design, that opens up the door for 
everyone else.  If so, you are asking for much higher costs.  If you hire an 
architect, it will mean a lot more drawings and time spent. They may be 
willing to hire their own architect, but then you will have fewer folks to 
share the cost of the main one. The contractor will have a much harder time 
planning bulk purchases and won't be able to make as many.  Coordinating the 
project (both with the subcontractors and the individual unit owners) will be 
a lot harder and far more time consuming, causing the project to take longer 
to build (that also increases costs, through longer construction loans), with 
the chance for mistakes increasing with the complexity.  Also, it will be 
difficult to get a feel for what the community will look like, since you 
don't know what kind of house will be next to what, especially if you don't 
know who your immediate neighbors are yet.  If you all have one style except 
for the one or two houses, those houses will look out of place.  And what 
design do you pick for the Common House?

On the other hand, if you don't mind the time and money and confusion, it may 
make for a more interesting look and each family can get the house they think 
they need.  I like differences; I hate the production-line look of most 
apartment or condo complexes.  But with different sized houses, different 
combinations and orientations of duplexes, a few external customizations (eg, 
optional bay windows and variable window placement), different house colors 
and trim, and variation in landscaping, we hope to have enough variety to 
avoid that ticky-tacky look.


Good luck on Saturday!

    -Roger