Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: How are your great room and kitchen connected?

[Larry Miller (larry.miller]

"Does your kitchen completely open to the great room/dining room? Are you able 
to completely
close off the kitchen from the great room/dining room?"

Our kitchen has door with a large glass window that opens to the Great Room as 
well as a large
pass through window. The pass through is wonderful for serving meals. We 
wouldn't want to do
without it. However, when cooks are in the kitchen and an event is going on in 
the Great Room,
we sometimes would like to be able to close it off. We have talked about some 
form of shutters
for the pass through, but have never acted on it. I strongly encourage a pass 
thru, but suggest
a means of closing it off.


"Also, does your group have a workshop?"

Not yet, but very soon now. We are in the final construction stages of a 600 sq 
ft workshop.
Grand opening will be some time next month (we hope). Several of us have been 
working on making
this happen for about 2 years now. We have a couple of serious woodworkers 
(including me) and
several others who are more casual. Insurance is not a problem as power tools 
will be privately,
not community owned and members will be asked to sign liability waivers before 
being allowed to
use the workshop. We are plagiarizing guidelines from another cohousing 
community and will
establish a Woodworker's Guild for any who want to use the power tools. The 
requirements to be a
guild member are to get safety and use training and to contribute to the 
maintenance of the
tools. 

It is, however, important to determine as best you can whether it will really 
be used. I know of
at least one which is greatly underused.  On the other hand, if it is part of 
the original
construction, it will cost less than to build it later and can be converted to 
some other
purpose if it turns out to be unused.

Larry Miller
Oak Creek Commons