Cohousing-L Mailing List: Planning the CH [was exclusive dinners vs community dinners- Mary Ann

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On 13 Feb 2012, at 11:47 PM, Jerry McIntire wrote:

> As we are planning our
> common house, we would like to benefit from others' experience.

Acoustics, acoustics, acoustics.

The best thing you can do to enrich community dinners for the old and the young 
is the best acoustics you can afford — even better than you can afford. Don't 
leave this for later. It is essential to a happy dining experience for those 
with less than perfect hearing caused by exposure to a lifetime of noise.

i went to a CH meal for the first time in a long time tonight (except for once 
every two months on taco night) and the noise makes it so unpleasant. There 
were only two babies and about 30 adults there. No one was yelling and the 
babies weren't even running around. It was just loud.

If you have to raise your voice to be heard, the noise can cause hearing damage 
in 30 minutes. I'm not an expert but I read up on noise in order to put in our 
acoustical panels. It is probably one of the most neglected well-being concerns 
we can have. Bill Clinton didn't have a hearing aid at 50 for nothing.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org