Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Beds and baths

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Tuesday, February 25, 2003, at 03:21  PM, curcio wrote:

> Another issue is bathrooms.  Since bathrooms are a major expense, does 
> it
> make sense to limit 2 bedroom units to 1 bathroom instead of 1.5, and 3
> bedroom units to 1.5 instead of 2?  Has anyone ever built units with 
> the
> plumbing intalled but fixtures to be added at a later date?

Some of this depends on whether you are an urban, suburban, or rural 
community. Demand for size of units varies as well as the practice of 
having roommates. Many of our two bedrooms have 2.5 baths because 
people planned from the beginning to rent one bedroom and wanted to 
rent it with a private bath. Yes, we did allow people to have the 
plumbing and leave out the fixtures. At least one of those baths is now 
a nursery.

Allowing things to be left out during construction seems not to 
increase costs -- I left out all my walls. It's the adding and changing 
that not only increases costs but DELAYS construction for everyone. 
Because it increases complexity you are asking for trouble and 
defeating the economic savings of a multi-household project.

But as has been said before on the list, designing in components that 
can be mixed and matched and not finalizing the final plans until you 
are ready to apply for a construction loan will allow you to move with 
your market.

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

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