Friday, March 02, 2007

Co-housing

Now that I'm visiting this great co-housing community and thinking about it...
regular neighborhoods suck!

If your going to live in apartments or condos and share a wall with somebody, then you might as well get the benefits of co-housing too. Back home, I know maybe... 4 of our neighbors, but here, you just know everybody - Oh, hi, how's it going? Ya, see you later - it's great.

2 words: Communal kitchen. You could go to a communal dinner or potluck almost every day if you wanted. People here are really friendly. We got to play pool at one of the neighbors' house, watch the Oscars at another. There is always somthing going on here- and you can join, or not.

Other communal rooms such as the art room, stuffed with pottery, teapots, tea cups and even a small bust sitting on the table, The "Teen multi-purpose room", which is less of a teen room than a room with tread mills and a tv, are really nice spaces. If people want an espresso machine, they can pitch in to get one.

I'm a really big fan of the buildings here, the communal buildings are straw-bale with adobe on the outside. The houses are colorful and also adobe (but not straw-bale, I don't know what they are) The shared gardens, adobe, colorful houses and winding pavement are an extremely attractive combination in my opinion.

-Ukiah

4 comments:

Raines said...

What a lovely community. You don't say which one it is or where it is... I don't recognize it at first glance, although I haven't been to all the many Seattle-area communities, I have been to more than 60 around the U.S.

Also don't forget to link to The Cohousing Association of the United States

Anonymous said...

Actually we're on a long roadtrip, this community is in Tucson, AZ. We'll add a link to the community site to the post.

Thanks for the pointer to the cohousing association.

Anonymous said...

Hi Ukiah,
How thick are the walls on the straw bale houses. I think the idea of these houses is so wonderful. I have read a couple books on them--what a superior use of resources! I think they are more common in the SW than elsewhere in the country--drier there.
How's your ankle?
Love, Gmad

Anonymous said...

My ankle is entirely healed, thanks. And the houses aren't strawbail, I think they're just cement bricks but adobe on the inside and outside. The commonhouse buildings are strawbail and adobe and they're probably a bit thicker than the size of an average chair... An odd way of putting it I know but I don't know how else to put it.