Cohousing-L Mailing List: Shared households "in" Cohousing (was Re: Unit mix/size)

[Oz (oz]

My housemates and I now live in a large home (~3500 sq ft) that adjoins
Songaia Cohousing (near Seattle). The building is much higher quality than
the private cohousing units which we could afford to build.

Five of the families who live(d) at Songaia purchased the property as part
of a larger "expansion" vision for the greater community - our home is on
the second adjoining property which community members have purchased to
this end.

The 2 couples who now live in our home sold their Songaia Cohousing homes
(which each couple occupied for 10 years) to acquire and remodel our new
home.

Our two Songaia homes were 1,100 sq ft and 800 sq ft and are now occupied
by newer members.

Part of our vision is that we're creating space which is better suited for
older members of our community. As has been noted, sharing also offers
higher quality space for the same amount of money.

Shared households also have some clear advantages with respect to taking
care of each other, e.g., I saved one of my (unrelated) housemate's life
who was choking. If we were back in our Songaia homes, I wouldn't have
known there was a problem - and their immediate neighbors would not have
been physically able to help.

I really value the fact that its relatively easy to keep our common spaces
tidy. Our great room (kitchen/living/dining areas) is almost always ready
for guests - which was not the case in our 1,100 sq ft home, which was
always filled up by our private lives. Now we have space for both private
life functions - and shared life.

We have been sharing two bathrooms, one on each floor, which works sort-of,
but not very well. Its awkward not knowing if a nearby bathroom is
available, especially at night.

Sharing a refrigerator has also been challenging - perhaps more so for us
since one couple is vegan and the other is omnivorous. Our fridge is
usually full, partially because of the large number of containers
of left-overs from Songaia common meals (but we have 5 meals per week +
many parties and special events).

We're about to get architectural drawings for a remodeling project that's
just getting started. We are better defining 3 discrete bedroom suites and
will also have some ideas for changes we might make in the kitchen.

As has been discussed on Coho-L, each suite will consist of a
bedroom/sitting area and a private bathroom. One suite will be fully
accessible, the other two are on the second floor. In addition to the 3
private bathrooms, we're adding a half-bath for "public" use - we've found
that using a bathroom for both residential needs and guests is sometimes
difficult.

As us older members have moved "out" of our cohousing community, it created
space for new members. Our community has had a very low turn-over (just a
single unit went on the open market since construction in 2000). If few
people leave, the average age of residents increases - we become a NORC
(Naturally Occurring Retirement Community). We're addressing this, in part,
by creating new spaces like in our shared household.

This seems to be working as our newer members are all younger - and as we
saw at yesterday's Easter egg hunt, we now have a whole new crop of little
kids, which includes our associate members.

After 10 years of living in our Songaia cohousing unit, I've found that I'm
happier living in our shared household - but this wouldn't be true if our
new home wasn't a part of my larger community.

Just like cohousing, living in shared household is not for everybody. But
if it is for you, it can be pretty great.

Oz Ragland
ozragland.com

On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 11:00 AM, Kay Wilson Fisk <caseyjackets [at] 
gmail.com>wrote:

>
> I once spent a lot of time drawing floor plans for house sharing,
> and I agree with your recommendation, but I would add one other
> feature: I would prefer not to have to share a refrigerator!
>
> Kay Wilson
> Bremerton, WA
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sharon Villines [mailto:sharon [at] sharonvillines.com]
> Sent: Saturday, April 07, 2012 4:40 AM
> To: Cohousing-L
> Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Unit mix/size
>
>
> On house sharing - my one experience of non-family house sharing
> that was successful was in a house where the other person and I
> had our own bedroom, sitting room, and bathroom.
>
> If anyone is designing a home in order to rent to strangers, I
> recommend this arrangement. While having the CH for respite could
> make a difference, the ability to retreat to ones own space and
> not clash over getting out to work at the same time made group
> living with a random person relatively stress free.
>
> Sharon
> ----
> Sharon Villines, Washington DC
> "Logic will get you from A to B.  Imagination will take you
> everywhere." Albert Einstein
>
>
>
>
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