Both posting on a news article in the Olympian. Really interesting comments on that article about a Co-Housing complex here in Oly.

Myself I wish them all the luck in the world (Woodard Lane). They deserve it, they made it through the city of Olympia planning buzzsaw, and still pressed on to get this thing done. It cost a lot of money.

Co-housing

The article was laying on my desk when I got in the office this afternoon, because I am the Engineer of Record for that complex. In layman's terms it is just a condominium, with a parking lot on the side. I.e you don't get to park in front of each building, you park in the parking lot and walk to the units. There is a big central yard, which has a fire access route made from grass pavers (grids that give grass some structural strength). The sidewalk skirts the yard and gives access to each unit.

The people in the co-housing are generally, really nice, and I guess you could say hippies (but mostly "normal" by Olympia standards). All of them are far enough along in their careers to be able to finance a $4m condo project. They simply are trying to create the life for themselves that they want to live. Most of us like to have our own yards, our own shops, our own little world. These folks do not want to live that way, they want something different.

They met all of the codes, had all the hearings and council meetings, and paid all the design and construction fees to make this happen. They certainly deserve to get the life they want.

My comments from the Daily Zero
Interesting concept, but there are some certain pitfalls involved. As pointed out, if you aren't in the clique, or you fall out of favor, it could be rather miserable. Also having your neighbor know your financial situation (have to submit a personal financial statement) is a bit unnerving.

At $400,000 or so per unit, the cost is WAY over what the average person would want to spend. You could build a single green structure with 900-1,800SF for much less. Value wise, I don't know that it will stand the test of time, as the ease of entry and exit is extremely difficult.

Just finished building a 3300 SF home and a 2,000 SF shop on 5 acres for $400,000. Ease of entry and exit, just need to find a buyer. Pretty straight forward.

I didn't see any information on exit strategies for members, so that would likely need to be addressed for folks not on the inside with the core group. Comp sales outside of the development could be condos, I guess.

I hope they succeed.

I wished them luck. I took the time to review the house plans, but to me the value vs. risk arguement was an issue for me.

Like you say, they are essentially a condo HOA with stricter rules that you would find anywhere else in the US, except for maybe some New York City condo's. You have to file a personal financial statement, which for me would be a deal breaker, go through 4 stages of approval to live there, and at the entry price of $400M for a 1,700-1,800SF condo, that is just too steep for me. $200-250M would be reasonable, but these folks are creating Seabrook in Olympia. I know Seabrook, nice, overpriced, grean building project. Seabrook has $300M 700SF cottages for sale, but I'm not buying.

Unfortunately green, at least the way they have done it, costs too much green. Get that price point down to a reasonable and "sustainable" figure, and they could sell them all day long.

No issues with the concept of group living, but if you needed to exit the project in a hurry, and you were out of favor with the group, they could literally hold up a sale of your property just to screw with you. That would not be cool and it could have an impact on the resale value as teh hold or marketing time would be extended over a similar condo. This is my biggest issue with HOA's, people getting into your personal decisions. That's why I live where I live.

I gave an honest review of the project as I saw it, looking at both sides. Hopefully I didn't upset anybody, as that was not my intent.

Imagine the issue they would have if I decided to burn some brush.

I have no problem if people want to live on top of each other......just as long as they don't get the idea that I should live like they do.

We have to step across the ditch to shoot in the county, as our property line is the city limits, and that has been done a few times with the .22's. I try to limit that though, out of repesct for my neighbors.

Signed,

Socially responsible Dogfish
P.O.T.C.

Better bring cash because financing one most likely ain't gonna happen. 984 square feet with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath, $275,000. Ouch. That's a lotta green to live "green".

Quote from one of the residents:
"Why I became a part of Woodard Lane Co-housing: I’ve lived in community and know I love it. My first was Eastwind, a commune in MO where we wove hammocks, made rope sandals, and produced nut butters"

Not too sure what "nut butters" are, sounds kinda kinky to me.

I thought Andy's comments were really good. I guess they are selling a "lifestyle", which is worth the extra $150k in some eyes. Andy's was probably one of the only comments on the entire article that actually had any merit.

Seabrook is selling that same lifestyle, except for they are in Pacific Beach.

I worked on Seabrook too.

The biggest difference between the two is the general attitude of the developer. The Olympia one is much less profit focused, than Seabrook. I don't know if the owners of Seabrook even have one of those houses, but all the Woodard Lane folks are moving in as soon as they can.

The Seabrook owners have a few houses there, and you are right, they are profit driven. That certainly was a fun project. Glad they got those road issues figured out.

If I wasn't sofa king exhausted, I'd have a lot to say on this matter.

in before Hankster

i love our big, dysfunctional family here!!!

Yuk yuk.

As happens with anything communal, there's the 1 or 2 that actually put effort into it, and the rest that just wanna get high & laid and sit around. After a few years of carrying everyone else's weight the workers burn out and leave the bums to themselves and go get jobs at places like Nike or Starbucks. The slobs never work so the place turns into a dump, driving away new members, and eventually they end up losing the place to foreclosure.

Having stayed with and lived close to hippies, I've seen it play out.

Where do I sign up to be the guy who gets laid and high?

WARNING: THREAD DRIFT

When we were on our cycling tour in Italy, we met up with an interesting couple from Palo Alto. Retired Stanford physics professor. He and his first wife lived in a hippie commune there with some other hippies in an open marriage concept arrangement. (Note to Dogfish: this is where you sign up to get laid and high.) The prof found out he enjoyed getting it on more with another guy's wife than with his own, etc., etc. So he divorced his wife; she divorced her husband, and the two of them left the commune, got married and lived happily ever after traveling all over the world.

Note: not all hippies are shiftless non-working types. Some of us have jobs and careers and still manage to keep an open mind.

Sg

That's true. My in-laws for example are S.F. hippies. Both are intelligent & held good jobs. Her dad just retired. Mom's still at it for awhile.

My wife's uncle is the OTHER type of hippie. That POS hasn't turned a dime in over two decades. He's the type of sumbitch that gives hippies a bad name.

Is he the type who thinks that the smell of his or her dreadlocks and no-deodorant is okay with everyone else in the gym? Those are the ones I hate. I mean everyone is there to sweat, but most of us have some regard for others in the place.

No, he's not a Dirt Hippy. That's his daughter. I've had to change tables down at Vic's when those kind of schitbags roll in with their filthy children.
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He's the kind that leaches off his 85 year old parents and throws hissy fits at family gatherings because everyone walks away when he comes up and starts ranting about 'The Man.'
This dude hasn't paid taxes OR voted in 25, maybe 30 years, and bitches loudly and constantly about 'The Fuggin' Guv'rmunt."

He's also wears Rasta hats. He's white.
That, there, is an auto-beacon that screams "Dumfuk!"
Lucky for his sorry ass, he landed one of those co-dependent door mat wives that supports him.
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