Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Is in-house plumbing and electric a must?

[Dane Laverty (danelaverty]

On Thu, Sep 4, 2014 at 6:57 AM, Philip Dowds <rphilipdowds [at] me.com> wrote:
>
> But cohousing...serves "regular" households... There is no reason to
expect cohousing to be
> "cheaper" than "regular" housing.

Philip, I agree that your statement above accurately represents the world
as it is. However, is there any reason that cohousing couldn't/shouldn't be
cheaper than regular housing? And so I'm interested in exploring the
options available for creating a low-cost cohousing community.

I see Opportunity Village as one possible model worth exploring. Right now,
I'm a suburban homeowner. I work a full-time job, go home in the evenings,
and hang out with my wife and kids for a couple hours before bedtime. I've
got two problems I'm trying to solve:

1. I'm interested in increasing the level of social interaction in my life.
2. Simultaneously, I'm interested in working fewer hours so that I have
more time for friends, family, and pastimes.

Conventional cohousing helps solve the first problem, but not the second
one. If I can find a low-cost cohousing solution that would reduce my
living costs to the point that I could support myself and my family while
working part-time or working from home, then that would solve both my
problems. So that's my motivation for looking at cohousing and other
intentional community models.

Dane