Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Design-Build & Takoma Village

[Berrins (Berrins]

In a message dated 12/19/00 2:46:07 PM, sharonvillines [at] prodigy.net writes:

<< ohousing is a multi-home project of single homes. The developer has to deal
with both the legal and physical complexity of multi-home design and
construction AND the single home buyer's personal preferences and
involvement. 

His comment was "I've never built 43 single family homes at the same time."

In a nutshell, that is the task in cohousing.

Sharon
-- 
Sharon Villines
In Washington, DC where all roads lead to Casablanca >>

Our contractor had done both before building ours but ran into the same 
issues.  Building a complex of apartments or condos is much cheaper because 
you have only a few different plans, can buy in bulk, the subcontractors make 
far fewer mistakes and they're easier to coordinate.  Individually designed 
homes are much more expensive but prevent that cookie-cutter, "ticky-tacky" 
look.

We compromised.  The contractor came up with several options that would help 
individualize homes without compromising bulk buying and that would minimize 
the complexity for the subs.  We then, as a group, narrowed down our choices 
(house color to 4 choices, trim 4 others, one type of siding, etc) to 
decrease complexity and cost.  

The biggest slow down occured when a few folks bugged the builder with 
frequent phone calls on various issues with their own homes.  Pick a liason 
or two (preferably someone with building or contract experience) and ALWAYS 
go through that person to communicate with the builder.  

Roger Berman
Pathways
Northampton, MA