Cohousing-L Mailing List: pre-built or owner built

[Rod Lambert (rod]

Naomi,
As a variation you might be interested in what the 2nd neighborhood (nbhd)- 
"SoNG" at EcoVillage at Ithaca did.
One participated in cohousing meetings (community building) and got the right 
to build a home on a personally selected site through share ownership in a 
cooperative. Provided you built with at least a baseline of specified green 
materials or better and fit within a specified height, width and length you had 
significant choice as to what you built. There are 2 strawbale homes here for 
instance (with wood siding similar to their neighbors)and several homes were 
ownerbuilt. A construction manager oversaw the whole process and hired 
subcontractors to build where a resident just wanted it built which was the 
most common option. Costs were on par or better with the first nbhd which was 
built more conventionally. According to the appraiser they were of higher 
quality overall then the first nbhd.
I can fill in more detail if you are interested.

Rod Lambert
Designer of SoNG





Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:56:27 -0700 (PDT)
From: Naomi Anderegg<naomi_anderegg [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ pre-built or owner built
To: Cohousing-L<cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Message-ID:<493054.28619.qm [at] web161309.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>
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OK... I'm not an actual co-houser (yet) either. Just really interested.
Currently I live in an urban neighborhood, where most of the houses were built
1900 - 1920s and most of the apartment buildings are probably more 1930s -
1940s. There are sprinklings of newer houses and apartment buildings and condos.
So I'm not used to a vanilla subdivision. Here are some advantages/disadvantages
that I perceive:

Advantages to a "sell the lot and get started" approach:
(1) You can start sooner.
(2) You can meet your own preferences / needs as far as building specifics go.
(Your budget / your tastes / etc. You hear about people moving into brand new
spaces and then having to change something about them. Just craziness in my
opinion. It doesn't make sense to pay for some type of front door (or whatever),
move in, and then immediately change it!)
(3) I think of this as more conducive to doing some of the work yourself.
(4) Opens up the idea of prefab&  kit housing, some if which is very efficient.
(5) There will be more diversity (as far as types of buildings) in the
community.

Note--I think that, depending on initial regulations/agreements, you can still
incorporate duplexes/4-plexes into this type of neighborhood--just as they are
scattered throughout what I consider a "traditional" neighborhood. I may agree
with what someone said about environmental efficiency and go ahead and build a
duplex with the intention of renting (or selling) the other half. Same with the
4-plex. Or two or three families might want to do this and build together. Then
only three families have to be "on board" before the design/construction of that
particular building can begin.

Disadvantages to a "sell the lot and get started" approach:
(1) There will be more diversity (as far as types of buildings) in the
community. (I know I listed this as an advantage--but some people might see it
as a disadvantage--so whatever. It's here too. Lack of visual continuity and
whatnot. Maybe you don't want your neighbor to have a purple house or want
houses to be close to the same size / design / distance from the road or feel
like having a 4-plex next door cheapens your property. I dunno.)
(2) Depending on initial communication and how clear it is, you might have
people buy in who are just looking to build a house and not really looking for
"the co-housing experience". (At my daughter's little Charlotte Mason private
school all the parents have to read an entire book on the Charlotte Mason
method, and then answer a series of essay questions as part of the application
process. It's not really stringent, but you do know what you're in for--and if
you're buying a house you want to know what you're in for! I'm sure that a
similar approach could be incorporated.)
(3) More of a chance to get to know everyone participating in the proposed
community beforehand if you plan the entire community together or attend weekly
planning meetings before-hand. (There are some republicans that moved in down
the street from me not really knowing what they were in for. They didn't know
that their next door neighbors would be lesbians or that they would be seeing
actual drag queens walking down the street. And they didn't know that they were
moving into one of few voting districts in Alabama that voted for Obama (by a
wide margin, I'm proud to say). They just liked the house and its proximity to
their workplaces. And they paid more than it was worth and are stuck. Poor
republicans.)


I do think that you should have weekly meetings even if building individually
(and even if you end up having to do them at a restaurant). It would given
everyone a chance to get to know each other, and also to talk about building
house stuff. ("We decided to go with X-type of insulation because it was more
environmentally friendly" or even "I can handle the wiring without any
trouble--but I need to find someone to do the plumbing; we really want someone
familiar with gray water systems and the laws concerning that".) Maybe have a 4
meeting, pre-lot-buying requirement or something like that?


Anyone else have anything to add? I'd like to see more of other people's
thoughts on this!


Naomi