Читать книгу My House Our House - Karen M. Bush - Страница 8

Welcome!

Prologue

From you I receive, To you I give. Together we share, And from this we live.*

NATHAN SEGAL, “FROM YOU I RECEIVE”

This book tells the story of how three independent women and one very independent black and white cat came to share a home.

In 2004, we three fifty-something Baby Boomers were happily living alone, occasionally pondering what seemed at the time the far-fetched notion of sharing a home together in the distant future, when we retired. Then, the situation changed. Suddenly, almost impulsively, with a scant month of rapid-fire planning, we found ourselves buying a house and preparing to move in together to create a cooperative household.

Startled friends and family members made varying predictions about how long we’d survive our communal living arrangement – none very encouraging. Now, as we find ourselves happily approaching a second decade together, those predictions have been proved wrong. Not only have we survived, we’ve thrived. And along the way, we’ve developed a number of tools and resources that we hope will be helpful to anyone thinking about doing what we have done.

We offer this how-to book to get you thinking about a simple-but-effective housing alternative for independent people. Our model of cooperative householding can be created anywhere, at any age or life stage, at any level of housing cost or financial investment. Your lifestyle priorities may not be the same as ours, but we offer examples from our own experience to paint a clear picture of daily life in our community. However, it’s not the details of our lifestyle that matter, but the big-picture concepts and how they might apply to your own circumstances.

Please make yourself comfortable while we share our story and encourage you to consider this atypical yet eminently sensible, practical, economical and enjoyable housing option.

We’ll begin on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend 2004, the day we hosted a mega open house after living in our new home for just one month. During that marathon event, each of us was asked to tell our story again and again as we guided almost 200 guests through the house from noon until long after midnight. Our friends’ and new neighbors’ enthusiasm and curiosity carried us well past the point of exhaustion.

Imagine a balmy September evening. You and other guests are just arriving.

*A framed version of these words hangs in our breakfast room; we sometimes recite them before holiday meals with family and friends.