How do you feel about moving into cohousing? If you are part of a retiring or retired couple, maybe you don't agree. Start by asking yourself what attracts you about senior cohousing.
New: Wildflower Village
Retirement Cohousing Directory
Ecovillages
in DFW
Hidden-Lake
in DFW
Wildflower Village: Dallas
Aging
Here Is Both Delightful and Graceful
Are
Rentals a Source of Income or Nuisance?
Attracting Younger People
Common House in Retirement Cohousing
Deciding
If Cohousing Is Your Correct Choice
Ecohousing:
A Green Retirement
Features of Common House
Finding DFW Cohousing Communities
Friction
Making Community Decision
Gardens
in Retirement Cohousing
How
Much Does It Cost?
Importance of Autos Recedes
Innumerable Benefits
of Cohousing
Locating Retirement Cohousing in
DFW
Near
Universal Features
Planning Outdoor Common Areas
Retirement
Cohousing & Your Active Lifestyle
Social Isolation & Loneliness Relating to Dementia &
Alzheimer Disease
What About
Children?
What
Are Usual Common
Areas?
What
Is Shared, Private in Retirement Cohousing?
New: Wildflower Village
In a retiring or retired couple, one may be thrilled with the idea of retirement housing or cohousing; the other may be dubious.
The same type of retirement housing (or retirement-senior cohousing community) that is right for one retired person may not be right for the next one.
Think about cohousing for a few minutes. How do you determine if cohousing is a good place for you to spend the rest of your life?
We often get bogged down by inconsequential issues that are really of no great importance to us. Although you are old enough to know that no situations or relationships are perfect., giving up your home to move into retirement housing is a large concern for most people.
The first step in determining if cohousing is right for you, is to list the issues in your life now. Try to narrow it down to the three issues that are most important to you.
Now prepare questions about the really important issues in your life while preparing to let less important items slide.
Once you have narrowed your list down to your major issues, you can go to meetings and ask questions about those issues.
Listen to the answers, of course, but just as important, watch the body language of people who are not responding. This will help you to avoid disparities between your wishes and those of the others who will share your life.
The following are some examples of questions you might ask yourself.
1. What
attracts you about living in cohousing?
Social times, shared meals, vegetable
gardening, cooking, working in the shop, more free time, less free time...
2. Would you prefer living with all
ages or your own age?
If cohousing is right for you, do you want to live with all ages, including
children, as in intergenerational cohousing, or would you prefer to live with
those who are closer to your own age and probably quieter in senior or
retirement cohousing...
e. The support system of cohousing communities is a
wonderful benefit but it is a two-way street. How will you feel about people who
ask for your support or favors?
In a small community people might ask
you for everything from a ride to DFW Airport to watering plants or caring for
pets while they are traveling...
4. Living in cohousing is often described as
up-close and personal. How good are you at establishing your own boundaries
and respecting the privacy and boundaries of others?
Can you both learn to
say "no" to others and take "no" when others say it to
you...
5. How do you handle controlling people and conflict situations?
Do you seethe inside, explode in a temper, argue, walk away, move on to
something else...
6. Will you enjoy your monthly work time that keeps the community
operational, keeps costs down, and builds friendships?
Although you will
probably have some choice of tasks, it often takes 10-15 hours of your time each
month...
7. How will you handle other residents' pets,
grandchildren, or other guests?
These are hotspots in any community but may become even more
discomforting in the closeness of cohousing.
8. Do you have unusual diet or food preferences?
Maybe you are vegetarian or diabetic.
Wildflower Village
Retirement Community
More Information
DFW
Ecovillages
Retirement or Intergenerational
Green Housing and Villages
in many areas of
Dallas-Fort Worth.
Retirement Cohousing
Hidden Lake Village
Red Oak- Waxahachie Area
Small lake on property
Golf course three blocks away
Energy-efficient, green housing