Quote:
Originally Posted by lazygood4nothinbum
looks like a great idea. on a similar line of thinking, some cousins and friends of mine have discussed as a group buying some land in a third world country together & building a compound of houses for ourselves. that way we could have housing needs met, have caregivers at a very reasonable rate and be there to look after each other. i guess the sole survivor loses out on that last part though.
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Sounds like "co-housing".. there are a lot of resources out there about how to set such things up. The key would be structuring it so that it could open up to new members as the old ones passed on.
My old business partner and one of my dearest friends spontaneously developed this kind of lifestyle when they were in their 30s..
BP and wife bought a 3-family house with a BIL, his wife, and a third couple of old friends. They each proceeded to have children (1 boy and 1 girl each!) for a total of 6 kids. It was infinite help with day-to-day life.. home maintenance (1 set of tools/gadgets), logistics of minding kids (picking them up and dropping them off).
In another scenario, DF and spouse found adjacent apts with a couple of close friends. The friends also had a sister renting one of their rooms. When they decided after many years to ditch the apt. scene, they found a weird property w/2 small houses on the same lot and all 5 of them de-camped to the new property owned by DF. DF and the lady of the other couple both have health issues, and the fact that they support one another (and work at the same company) really helps.
Neither of these groups have gotten to the "caregiver" point, and I guess there are potentials for disagreements, but I think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. I think most of us grew up with independence, privacy, and our own "space" being the ideal.. and don't we realize what we've lost in the trade-off until we're "up against it".
It's really an attractive idea when you think about being able to build smaller private units (more cost- and energy-efficient) along with shared spaces for guests, big kitchen and hall for entertaining, pool, garden area and so forth. I look at our 2 cars, all the tools in our garage, all the books I have, and "stuff" I never use (but might!), the grand piano, the church organ.. and think, what if I could 'share' this stuff conveniently while still having it be "mine"?
Hybrid Mode
