“I didn’t like the silence,” said Janet explaining how she ended up choosing a life of shared housing. At the time, she was living alone after the divorce in the house of her twenty-five year marriage. She also retired from stressful, more-than-full-time job as a litigator. Her experience of the silence was such that she […]
Read More...Sweet Surprise in Discovering Shared Housing
“It’s a sweet surprise to me,” says Janet about living with Kathleen as home-mates. How It Happened Kathleen and Janet were already friends. They met when Janet was Kathleen’s Episcopal priest, and Kathleen served on the vestry (a church board). Their friendship included vacationing together – Kathleen with her husband and son. After Janet had […]
Read More...“I’m Bourgeois Now,” Says the Former Commune Member
Richard doesn’t look like a former commune member with his starched oxford shirt, fancy watch and short-hair. “I’m bourgeois now, but I’m a hippie inside,” he says. The commune he helped to found, Packer Corners Farm, lasted for twenty-five years. In its day it was famous. The Experiment It started when Richard and friends from […]
Read More...Remember “POSSLQ?” Now it’s POSSSLQ!
POSSSLQ is the phrase that Sharon and Deb use for their relationship. When they got in touch with me and I read their booklet, POSSSLQ: ELDERS LIVING OUTSIDE THE BOX, I was deeply gratified and excited. Their experience is one that I know is possible if and when we are open to it. It goes beyond […]
Read More...Meanwhile They Own a Condo
Judy and Donna own a condo they have lived in for almost 20 years. Says Judy, “By buying together and moving in at the same time, it is all fair. No one has a foot over the other. We have mutual respect and a 50/50 arrangement.” They were already housemates when they made the decision to […]
Read More...How Would You Ask for a Change?
Two housemates, Louise and Karen, are sitting on their balcony in Florida in early December. Louise wants to make a change. Here are two ways she could say it. “Let’s hang white lights.” Or “I’d like to have white lights on the patio. It’d be pretty, give us some light, and is in keeping with […]
Read More...Family Mode Sharing Together
“Family mode” is what Sandy calls what happens when you live with someone for a while. She lives with three housemates in an apartment in downtown Brattleboro. She says, “I’ve been co-housing all my life. In my early twenties I had an open marriage. We lived with people we loved. My parents had an open […]
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