If you’ve been anywhere near our site lately, or read the ODT today, you’ll know that construction is well underway.  We are feeling pretty good; having overcome our first building setback and now seeing irrefutable, concrete signs of progress.

The building setback happened just before Christmas, when soft ground was discovered.  The timing meant the construction had an extra-long halt over the holiday period as we grappled with possible solutions.  A way forward was decided, but the slower than expected progress on our new units meant that windows ordered from Germany arrived before the walls were up, necessitating storage.  

We watched as these extra costs ate up a portion of our “contingency fund”, but consoled ourselves with the silver lining of Stevenson and Williams bringing forward the work on the units attached to our Common House. These had been previously scheduled for later completion.  It is great to walk past and see them taking shape.

Walking past is all we can do  because there is no access now that High Street School has turned into a building site.  We have been lucky to be able to use the wonderful facilities at the University of Otago’s Sustainability Centre, so our meeting schedule continues.  Starting the build has meant that they’ve been somewhat dominated with construction concerns.

Ann Zabaldo, from Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC, visited us and her “imagine the first day” prompt was a good way of re-focussing on building community rather than houses.  At our last Thursday night meeting we decided to hold monthly Saturday afternoon sessions, with potluck to follow, to give us a break fom the responsibilities of the multi-million-dollar-build-project.  We’ll continue the work on writing our Body Corp rules and get to know each other better in the process.

There’s now only a one bedroom and a two/three bedroom unit available.  Attendance at an Induction Workshop remains a prerequisite for purchasing any unit, so we continue to run these as required.  Skype has been used for people who cannot physically make it to Dunedin. Our next Induction Workshop is scheduled for Saturday 8 June.

We look forward to selling the last unit and welcoming another family into the High Street Cohousing experience.

Hei kona mai