Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Assumptions - Was Cats

[MartyR707 (MartyR707]

In a message dated 9/1/01 9:50:44 AM, Sharon writes:

>A list of those decisions which need to be made  up-front would be very
>helpful. The site is one of them just because location determines so much
>of everything else. Pet policy (a seemingly private choice) is one of them
>because pet owners make such different assumptions about the world than
>nonpet owners and cat owners are different than dog owners.

Wow is right on this cat subject - in 6 years I've never seen so much on one 
topic!  I am a cat lover and we have lots of cats here at Two Acre Wood.  
Right now my cat is 18 and so stays inside, but I have always adhered to cats 
inside at night - 95% of damage both to cats and by cats happens at night.  
(well, maybe not by....)  Loose dogs chasing our beloved cats is another one 
to consider.

Anyway - I wanted to respond to the idea of examining assumptions.  If you 
are a forming community, I can't think of anything more important to discuss 
(other than land search and building, of course).  I think the biggest shock 
here after move-in was discovering how very different all of our assumptions 
were.  I think it is easy to form an idea in your mind of "how cohousing will 
be" - and then be startled to find each person had a different vision in 
their mind.  A few examples off the top of my head:

Amount of work participation
Pet issues (I'm amazed that one community can't agree to keep pets out of the 
common house!)
Meal prep and frequency and participation level, etc.
Processes for changing landscaping and outside design stuff
How the garden will be managed - private beds?  all for the community?  
raised beds? no raised beds?  kids have free access?  kids supervised by 
adults?
Amount of visible clutter on front porches/carports, etc.
How to clean the common house - who, how often, how clean, etc.

Most of it works out one way or another, but I think there was at least a 
year of shock here as we all discovered how different others ideas were from 
our own - even after 5 years of planning!!

Marty Roberts
Two Acre Wood, Sebastopol, CA
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