Cohousing-L Mailing List: utilization of Common House

[Judy Baxter (BAXTER]

Thanks Liz, for your thoughtful post.

You are right, my place is also underutilized a lot.  and the Psychological
importance  of the presence of CH is immense.

It's not really underutilized, but certainly people hang out less than I had
expected, and ours (retrofit) can seem pretty empty.  There are design features
we don't have because our wonderful existing building - I don't know how much
difference that makes.

Read Liz's original post (topic was 'Households Sponsoring Outside Groups in
Commonhouse' - June 11, 2001)

Judy
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Judy Baxter, Monterey Cohousing Community,(MoCoCo) Twin Cities Area, Mpls.,MN
 web page: http://www.jimn.org/mococo/ 
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>Liz Stevenson wrote (June 11, sorry, I get way behind, esp. if I go
away for a while
>> Like many, the CH seems under-utilized.
 >>Judy Baxter

>I've been thinking about this, and I think that common houses are not as
underutilized as they seem. Laundry, mail, meals and other things happen
every day, and sometimes the CH is sparsely enough used that we don't see
each other, even though we go in there every day. Most people could say
their own homes are underutilized during the day, too.

There is also the knowledge that it is there. Psychically, it is important
to have, therefore it is being used even when empty, for community, for
peace of mind, as a center of the collective spirit of the group.
>

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