Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Need information on Common House use

[Linda Hobbet (coho]

Hi,

Sounds like they lived in a condominium complex where, it is true, the 
clubhouse gets very little use. Been there, done that. Cohousing is 
different.

I live in Village Hearth Cohousing, a 28 unit senior community. We are 
moving in during COVID and our common house isn't set up yet, but it is 
still used daily for getting mail, doing laundry (7 of our units don't 
have laundry hook-ups and about half of the rest opted to use the 
laundry closet for storage and do their washing in the common house). 
Large meetings are held on zoom, but many small meetings are held in 
person in the common house, masked and social distanced. The Common 
House terrace gets lots of use by people just hanging out and more 
organized events, including a monthly soiree where we read poetry and 
tell stories. We had a Rosh Hashanah celebration presented by two Jewish 
members there. I expect the exercise room will start getting used soon, 
one person at a time, and we think it might be possible for small cook 
teams to start preparing meals which will be served on the terrace or 
picked up at eaten at home or in small groups on front porches.

Good luck.

Linda Hobbet

On 8/25/2020 12:04 PM, Barbara Smith via Cohousing-L wrote:
> I am with Middlesex Senior Co-housing, which hopes to build the region's first senior 
> co-housing development on property we've optioned in Littleton, MA. Our plans are before the 
> Littleton Planning Board and among their questions is: why do we need a common house? (I know 
> -- this does not strictly relate to the zoning bylaw, but we're trying to reassure them in as 
> many ways as possible.) One member maintains that a Common House is "never used". 
> Before the next Planning Board meeting (in a few weeks) I want to present results of a short 
> survey of  co-housing communities' use of their common house. Could anyone out there 
> please help us out by answering a few questions?
>   
>
> 1. How often is your common house used -- on a daily, weekly or monthly basis?
>
> 2. For what purposes do people use your common house? (As many uses as 
> possible!)
>
>   
> Many thanks from all of us in Middlesex Senior Cohousing!Barbara B Smith
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VillageHearthCohousing.com
706-202-7278
coho [at] lindahobbet.com