The wife and I went to the mentor cohousing community this weekend to see what we might expect out of the cohousing development we're looking into. We got to see the model community in action and in practice.
The place was two and a half hours away in Blacksburg, Virginia (home of Virginia Tech). Blacksburg is much less liberal than Charlottesville (home of the University of Virginia), so I'm kind of surprised that they had a cohousing community before we did. Oh well, that's not really relevant.
Our hosts were a couple with 2 daughters (ages 5 and 3). We brought our 3 year old daughter and 6 month old son with us. Our daughter had a blast playing with the other girls.
The tour was good. We got to talk to people who were living in the community and ask all sorts of questions. Better than that, we got the answers face-to-face with the reading of expressions and follow-up questions that are just not possible over email.
Besides that, to me at least, you can look at as many pictures on a webpage as you like. It will never add up to even a short amount of time actually being there and observing something first hand. There's nothing like walking through the pedestrian oriented neighborhood and standing in the common house.
All in all it took me a step closer to being able to commit to the idea. The wifey is totally sold. She'd sell the townhouse tomorrow and move in ASAP if she could.
My main hang up at this point is the financial feasibility of it all. That and the alteration of our long term financial plans. Mainly - we had planned to never sell the townhouse we are currently in. The plan was to pay off the credit cards (thus freeing up a bunch of money in credit card payments) and then rent the townhouse. Have someone else pay the mortgage, you know?
If we rented the townhouse and shook our credit card payments we'd be able to swing another mortgage payment, even if rent didn't cover all of the townhouse payment. That way when we retired we'd either be able to sell the townhouse for a quick cash injection or continue to rent it for long-term income.
Right now it looks like the community we're looking at will break ground in April, with move-ins around September. It depends on when we would have to kick in our down payment and how long it would take to sell the townhouse.
In this market we'd have to put the townhouse up for sale soon. If it did happen to sell in short order, we may have to move in with my Mom for as many as 8 months while our house was being built. That's assuming my Mom would let us move in. I think she would, but you never want to assume with something like that.
I am also fairly certain we'd get enough out of a sale to pay off the mortgage, but you never know in this market. In the original plan we didn't have to worry about the current downturn in the housing market. We weren't going to sell the townhouse in the short term or maybe ever. Housing proces would recover eventually and even if they didn't it wouldn't hurt as bad since people had been paying our mortgage (or a large potion of it) in the form of rent.
I just don't want to get all excited about this and make a bad decision. Our current long term plan is a good one, I think. And maybe in two years we'd be ready to buy a new house without selling the townhouse - but not right now. We need to pay off the credit cards first.
Oh, well. This wasn't what I wanted to babble about. Here's the place we toured:
http://www.shadowlakevillage.org/
Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts
Monday, October 22, 2007
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Cohousing - A Possible Alternative?
I am on the mailing list of a local "Peace and Justice" type group. I know, I know - I don't seem like the type. One might think I'm more of the militia type.
Well I'm a bit more complicated than that, okay?
In any event, there was a link in their latest mailing to a local cohousing community. The idea was pretty intriguing. I like the community aspect invloved with sharing of meal cooking duties, a common house, and the pedestrian nature of the developments.
The one problem with the Cohousing development that we're looking into is that they may not have the commitment to renewable energy that I'm looking for. They mention that all homes will be "energy efficient" and that they'll have features like rainbarrels but I'm not sure that allowances could be made for "going the extra mile", so to speak.
They mention that all houses must be 1,800 sq feet or less and that the floorplans cannot be altered. I don't know if installing PV arrays or evacuated solar tubes for water heating would be considered a deviation from the floorplan or not.
Here's a cohousing community in Ithaca, NY if you'd like an example.
Ha! As I was typing this entry I got an email back from the cohousing community I emailed stating that solar would be allowed. Hmmm.... this is worth looking into.
I think the wife and I will have to look into this - maybe attend a meeting or two.
Well I'm a bit more complicated than that, okay?
In any event, there was a link in their latest mailing to a local cohousing community. The idea was pretty intriguing. I like the community aspect invloved with sharing of meal cooking duties, a common house, and the pedestrian nature of the developments.
The one problem with the Cohousing development that we're looking into is that they may not have the commitment to renewable energy that I'm looking for. They mention that all homes will be "energy efficient" and that they'll have features like rainbarrels but I'm not sure that allowances could be made for "going the extra mile", so to speak.
They mention that all houses must be 1,800 sq feet or less and that the floorplans cannot be altered. I don't know if installing PV arrays or evacuated solar tubes for water heating would be considered a deviation from the floorplan or not.
Here's a cohousing community in Ithaca, NY if you'd like an example.
Ha! As I was typing this entry I got an email back from the cohousing community I emailed stating that solar would be allowed. Hmmm.... this is worth looking into.
I think the wife and I will have to look into this - maybe attend a meeting or two.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Green Trek - The Next Generation
One thing is for certain - our habits, as a species, need to change. We need to change and we need to train our children to think differently than we were raised to think.
When I say that our children need to think differently than we were raised to think, I mean that most of us were raised in the halcyon days of America. Most parents at the time were just beginning to become aware of the dangers of smoking and really had little to no awareness on topics such as the environment or global warming. Despite the oil crisis of the late 70's, no one thought that was indicative of shortages to come. They mainly thought this was a geopolitical issue and to a large degree they were right.
My Dad was a bit ahead of the curve in terms of environmental awareness. As long as I can remember he has been a member of the Sierra Club and he always taught us that littering was a bad thing to do. Back then this was as environmentally conscious as most people got. I'm not saying there wasn't an environmental movement or that there wasn't progress made on cleaning up many rivers, bays, etc. I'm saying it wasn't an issue that loomed large in the conscious minds of most people.
This is what it needs to become - an issue looming large in the conscious mind of society as a whole. What will make this change of thought stick as an ongoing realignment of mankind's approach to how we treat Earth is the indoctrination of our youth. Raising our children with these concerns in mind will make them second nature to the next generation of humanity.
I'm no child psychologist, but I am a father of four so I believe I have some insight into kids and how they think. Some people have accused me of being nothing more than a big kid. Well, they have cooties and can kiss my hiney.
Anyway - what I've done in my house is I've involved my kids. If they ask me what I'm reading I tell them. I try to get them interested in what it is I'm reading (right now I'm reading The Renewable Energy Handbook by William H. Kemp).
When I am working on some spreadsheet to calculate this or that concerning our family's energy consumption I make a point of making my work visible. Again, if any questions are asked I enthusiatically answer them. If you tell a kid, "Oh, nothing. What I'm doing is boring" they'll run away and never pay it any mind again.
My kids both have their own PC. They also have an X-Box 360 and TV they share. I showed them my spreadsheet and how them leaving their PCs on all day long was costing our family $17.86 a month each or $35.72 all together every month.
Since they'd both had their PCs for over a year I asked them, "Hey, each of you go get your piggy banks and give me $214.32 please. That's $17.86 a month times 12 months. Thanks!"
Of course my daughter (9) and son (12) looked at me like I was crazy.
"It doesn't cost that much!" my daughter said.
"No, you're right," I said. "You actually owe me more than that since I wasn't even taking the X-Box or TV into account."
Needless to say I didn't actually drain my kids piggy banks. It did serve to illustrate the point. They both realized that all of the allowance they had accumulated over months didn't add up to the electric bill just for their PCs. It was very easy from there to convince them to turn them off while not in use.
I placed a little picture next to the light switch in their rooms that said "STOP! Is your computer off? Is your monitor off? Turn off your light!"
After spot-checks over the last week they are doing a much better job at conserving the power consumed by their personal electronics. I have only had to come behind them and power off their PC once so far.
Our low flow showerhead should be arriving soon. When it arrives I'll see if I can get one of the kids to help me install it. Once installed I'll have to gather the family around and explain to them how they can take advantage of the "pause" feature that this showerhead offers (they can stop the flow of water while they lather up).
By getting them involved and talking to them about conservation, efficiency, and green living I am hoping to raise a green batch of kids. A good sign that they are thinking green will be if they ask you questions about conservation or energy on their own.
When I say that our children need to think differently than we were raised to think, I mean that most of us were raised in the halcyon days of America. Most parents at the time were just beginning to become aware of the dangers of smoking and really had little to no awareness on topics such as the environment or global warming. Despite the oil crisis of the late 70's, no one thought that was indicative of shortages to come. They mainly thought this was a geopolitical issue and to a large degree they were right.
My Dad was a bit ahead of the curve in terms of environmental awareness. As long as I can remember he has been a member of the Sierra Club and he always taught us that littering was a bad thing to do. Back then this was as environmentally conscious as most people got. I'm not saying there wasn't an environmental movement or that there wasn't progress made on cleaning up many rivers, bays, etc. I'm saying it wasn't an issue that loomed large in the conscious minds of most people.
This is what it needs to become - an issue looming large in the conscious mind of society as a whole. What will make this change of thought stick as an ongoing realignment of mankind's approach to how we treat Earth is the indoctrination of our youth. Raising our children with these concerns in mind will make them second nature to the next generation of humanity.
I'm no child psychologist, but I am a father of four so I believe I have some insight into kids and how they think. Some people have accused me of being nothing more than a big kid. Well, they have cooties and can kiss my hiney.
Anyway - what I've done in my house is I've involved my kids. If they ask me what I'm reading I tell them. I try to get them interested in what it is I'm reading (right now I'm reading The Renewable Energy Handbook by William H. Kemp).
When I am working on some spreadsheet to calculate this or that concerning our family's energy consumption I make a point of making my work visible. Again, if any questions are asked I enthusiatically answer them. If you tell a kid, "Oh, nothing. What I'm doing is boring" they'll run away and never pay it any mind again.
My kids both have their own PC. They also have an X-Box 360 and TV they share. I showed them my spreadsheet and how them leaving their PCs on all day long was costing our family $17.86 a month each or $35.72 all together every month.
Since they'd both had their PCs for over a year I asked them, "Hey, each of you go get your piggy banks and give me $214.32 please. That's $17.86 a month times 12 months. Thanks!"
Of course my daughter (9) and son (12) looked at me like I was crazy.
"It doesn't cost that much!" my daughter said.
"No, you're right," I said. "You actually owe me more than that since I wasn't even taking the X-Box or TV into account."
Needless to say I didn't actually drain my kids piggy banks. It did serve to illustrate the point. They both realized that all of the allowance they had accumulated over months didn't add up to the electric bill just for their PCs. It was very easy from there to convince them to turn them off while not in use.
I placed a little picture next to the light switch in their rooms that said "STOP! Is your computer off? Is your monitor off? Turn off your light!"
After spot-checks over the last week they are doing a much better job at conserving the power consumed by their personal electronics. I have only had to come behind them and power off their PC once so far.
Our low flow showerhead should be arriving soon. When it arrives I'll see if I can get one of the kids to help me install it. Once installed I'll have to gather the family around and explain to them how they can take advantage of the "pause" feature that this showerhead offers (they can stop the flow of water while they lather up).
By getting them involved and talking to them about conservation, efficiency, and green living I am hoping to raise a green batch of kids. A good sign that they are thinking green will be if they ask you questions about conservation or energy on their own.
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