Cohousing-L Mailing List: Work Share [Was: Moving In]

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> It all happened quite smoothly, with no sense of judgement either about
> those who were not helping.
To reiterate something Rob said years ago -- what is important is that 
everyone is happy with the level of what they are doing. The important 
criterion: "is everyone happy."

People who are not happy because they are doing too much are a major 
source of irritation in the community. They need to stop. "Just stop" 
works wonders.

 The related problem of "is everything that needs to be done getting 
done" can be dealt with in a number of ways -- hire it out, organize a 
work party, do without.

We had a flood in our commonhouse this Saturday and my advice is to add 
that list "keep it simple." Design only up to your level of ability to 
monitor and maintain. On Saturday afternoon, the pipes to our sprinkler 
system froze and burst because the subcontractor didn't insulate over 
the ceiling of a room that was only partially covered by a second 
story. It was sheer chance that anyone was on site who had any idea how 
to respond to water pouring out of the ceiling from an unknown source. 
The water cut off was two keys away and in the basement. It had a sign 
on it but so does everything else.

If I had to design a commonhouse today, it would be an enormous great 
room with exposed pipes for decoration. Very simple.

Sharon
-----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org

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