Cohousing-L Mailing List: condo buy-up/ retrofit

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

The poster who suggested people buy up condo units, adding in friends and 
relatives over time, would perhaps be interested to know of a number of 
cohousings of the "retrofit" variety, which were created in a slightly 
similar way. An abandoned convent, a city block, and other existing 
structures have in fact been used as the physical plant of cohousings and 
other intentional communities. 

The list, however, of imagined horrors of cohousing that this would avoid, 
however, did not ring true to my 18 years of cohousing experience. 

"Months (years) of discussions that seem to go nowhere about how we want to
live as a community"
They can actually go important places, and create a common culture of 
understandings and relationships that pay off in the long run.
...
"Months (years) of waiting to move in..."
Yes. Hopefully, this time will also be spent building community. Or, those 
who buy the first units can move right in, but keep working on getting an 
intentional community going, with plans for common spaces, and people ready 
to buy additional properties adjacent, as they come up. 

"The expense and trouble of an under utilized common house, over run by 
noisy children, a constant source of annoyance because of cleanliness and 
tidiness issues."
Our beautiful common house is frequently used (for Thanksgiving dinner 
tonight, another meal tomorrow). The kid comment is so negative I won't 
bother with it. And we have never found it to be a "constant annoyance" 
about cleanliness-- the CH is much cleaner than my home! We built it for 
easy maintenance, pitch in well on occasional work parties, and take pride 
in keeping it nice. 

"In other words, we'd get all the best part of cohousing, with lower levels 
of anxiety, frustration and contention."
Sounds to me like much of "all the best part" could be missing. At RoseWind, 
much of the "best part" is the human community which has evolved as we 
worked things out together. 

Lynn Nadeau