Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Selection of cohousing finishings

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> To keep the cost down, the builder and some of us came up with a very limited 
> selection of finishes---I recall for instance a single paint color in all the 
> houses.

This reduces costs because it saves time. Everyday that you are in construction 
is a day that you are paying high interest rates. And every deviation adds the 
possibility of mistakes and the time it takes to correct them.

> The builder as the time for finishing got close did a lot of side deals with 
> individual owners to upgrade some things. 

This is not a good process. All of these side deals delayed the finishing of 
the whole project.

Several of our units decided they wanted IKEA kitchens but this was a group 
effort handled with an extra crew of installers. It wasn’t each person doing a 
side deal at the expense of other members.

If you go through the archives you will see post after post saying that 
customization is expensive for everyone, not just for the people wanting to 
customize.

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