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

[oldsol (oldsol]

Here at Milagro cohousing (Tucson AZ) we allowed extensive 
customization.....and paid dearly for it.  Our construction time was extended 
to several years and costs kept rising.  However, I'm very satisfied with the 
changes we made to our house and it has served us well for 8 years.  

John Solso

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I should say too that we hired Chris ScottHansen as a consultant early on. 
I can still remember him standing in front of our group and telling us two 
things. One was that we should totally standardize the houses both outside 
and inside to keep costs as low as possible and for the reasons Maraiah 
gave.  The second thing was, he knew we wouldn't do it.

He said he told every cohousing group to standardize to the max but people 
invariably want to customize, even though they've been warned not to.  How 
right he was.  I don't know what quirky "dream house" features people might 
have designed into their homes here that could keep them here too long or 
keep their house from selling, but we were warned!

    Muriel
    Shadowlake Village Cohousing