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

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Sep 8, 2024, at 12:43 PM, Katie Henry <katie-henry [at] att.net> wrote:
> 
> At Heartwood Commons in Tulsa - 36 units, currently wrapping up construction 
> and about 30% moved in - the members worked with the architects before 
> construction began to choose unit finish options and quality levels. There 
> were two color schemes (warm or cool) that determined flooring, cabinets, and 
> countertops. Other than color, the materials were the same. Paint color was 
> the same in all units. There were a few upgrade options (sun tunnels, small 
> kitchen tweaks, bigger windows in certain unit types) that cost extra. Even 
> with this relatively small amount of variation, managing the options across 
> four different floor plans was an enormous logistical challenge. Your average 
> multifamily builder is not equipped to manage a project of this complexity. 
> This is veering into custom home territory and you will pay for that, if not 
> up front, then in errors and rework later.

The sentence above should be a classic Cohousing true statement. 

A story:  In 1970, I was the first person to move into a large apartment 
complex when the few finished units were still occupied by the construction 
workers. It was being built by a company that hired workers who traveled from 
site to site. They were wonderful guys trained to do fast work to standard 
specifications. I met a lot of them and attended several evening beer fests. I 
had a 2-year-old at the time and she was very popular, particularly with those 
who had no children or were traveling away from their own children. They were 
wonderful people.

When I hear about the kinds of customization cohousers want, my first thought 
is how badly these guys will feel when they screw up because they didn’t notice 
the change in plans or didn’t understand them. It would break their hearts.

Customizations will delay everyone's move-in.

A related story group purchases. We found it much harder than expected to do 
group purchases and now do relatively few. At move-in one person handled orders 
with a blinds company and negotiated a group discount. The expectation was that 
the blinds would all be installed at the same time — we would just block off a 
week and the installers could go from one home to the next saving tons of 
travel time. 

IMPOSSIBLE. The installers were only experienced at doing one home at a time — 
both in scheduling time and in doing the work. They had one process: Customized 
binds received from factory for one home, look up address, schedule 
installation, install. Go to next customized order….

We were dumbfounded that we had gotten a price based on one installation trip 
for the whole community and instead we got a discounted price on 25-30 
individual installations. The person who arranged this even tried to explain to 
the store that they had a bad deal, but it was the only way they could function.

Another time we tried to have everyone’s HVACs serviced in the same 2-3 days. 
With full consultation with all parties, individual appts were scheduled and 
posted. It was pretty much of a disaster. We had just moved in a year before 
and people were used to the construction company doing things but they had 
keys. The HVAC service people would show up for their appts and people were not 
home, had not left keys, or left keys in the on-call box but didn’t want the 
service people inside alone. Who was supposed to accompany them?

What we learned is that it is very hard to learn how to get everyone on the 
same page with their assumptions and expectations. That gets better “years 
later” because everyone (almost) begins to understand what other people will 
misunderstand and what their own tolerance is for reminders and “no one showing 
up.”

We are more careful when offering to arrange a group anything or joining a 
group purchase. There are just too many variables.

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