Cohousing-L Mailing List: building green

[Casey Morrigan (cjmorr]

For us, it's easy to figure out.  We had a certain amount of money, and no 
more, to spend on our houses and to put up front for the construction loan. 
 Land is expensive here and after we put up 33% of the expected cost of our 
house as part of the construction loan, we didn't have any more cash to 
consider custom building techniques.  We barely swung it.  We are all 
greenies who would have loved to do more.

For example, we would have liked to do straw bale building, but we had 
physical constraints.  We just barely could fit the number of units we 
figured we needed on our site (we were on a a small and odd shaped lot, one 
of the last undeveloped pieces within our small town city limits), and 
straw bale construction methods would have eliminated at least one of the 
units by virtue of wider walls.

There is nothing like actually building something to understand the 
constraints.

One family, with a nice roof orientation, put up solar panels.  The 
community just purchased photovoltaic panels to run electricity back into 
the grid and lower our electric bills. Good steps, done post-construction.

The median price of a single family home in our area is close to $400,000. 
Gulp.

Casey Morrigan
Two Acre Wood
Sebastopol

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ronald Greek [mailto:unno_2002 [at] yahoo.com]
> Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2003 9:31 PM
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Subject: Re: [C-L]_"New" Seeking Tucson, AZ contacts/discussion
>
>
> Rod,
>
> Thanks for the referral to wonderland, I'll check them
> out.
>
> It's just not made sense to me why the
> "environmental", or co-housing efforts, fall back on
> essentially the same design and construction methods
> of every other housing development.
>
> Ron G.
> Yuma, AZ, seeking something better for my child's
> future...
>
>
>
>
> --- RodLambert [at] aol.com wrote:
> > Ron,
> > Re. alternative designs and ways of getting built:
> > It is peculiar that there isn't more effort in this
> > direction. The primary
> > reason given is that it is a way of keeping costs
> > down thereby making it more
> > affordable to more people. Cohousing is almost by
> > definition, a rejection of the
> > conventional developer's methods ie spralling
> > suburban boxes, but not to any
> > extent yet, a rejection of his methods ie "you can
> > pick from these 4 models
> > only and don't ask for changes or it will cost you."
> > We tried a different way here at EcoVillage at
> > Ithaca. In the 2nd NBHD we
> > allowed "sweat equity" in fact several people
> > practically built their own house
> > including strawbale and timberframe. We also allowed
> > custom design. We used a
> > construction manager on an hourly basis and a "site
> > crew" that flexed in size
> > as needed. We were able to get good discounts for
> > materials and labor without
> > huge markups. It meant that there were no warranties
> > (although even that could
> > have been arranged) but the cumulative savings seems
> > to more then make up for
> > it. The average cost per sq. ft was actually lower
> > than the First NBHD which
> > was done in the "conventional" way you speak of.
> > This alternative method
> > produces a more personal NBHD although one needs to
> > put in more of your own energy -
> > its not for the person who just wants to be called
> > when its done.
> > I really think that looking in this direction is the
> > way to go. We have
> > accumulated a great deal of experience and knowledge
> > getting the 2nd NBHD built and
> > have formed a company to "take the show on the
> > road". In your area you might
> > also want to contact Wonderland. They have a lot of
> > experience and seem to be
> > well liked. They might be willing to experiment with
> > a less conventional
> > method of getting built.
> >
> > Hope this helps
> >
> > Rod
> >
> > Rod Lambert
> > Design Director
> > EcoVillage at Ithaca
> > 234 Rachel Carson Way,
> > Ithaca NY, 14850
> >
> > 607 275 3362
> >
> > <<Is there any interest out there for a co-housing
> > project, that does
> > not impose a standardized home design and
> > construction method?
> >
> > I've been wondering why I don't see such
> > "neighborhoods", comprised
> > of earthships, domes, strawbale, etc. in some sort
> > of mix.
> >
> > Ron G.
> > Yuma, AZ (But looking for the Tucson and slightly
> > "east" area.)>>
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>
>
> =====
> Ronald Frederick Greek
> Yuma, Arizona, USA
> Attorney at Law
>
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