The sign up sheet is at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?authkey=CIGooNUI&key=0AtMUj67xuX_FdEFHcnFkTHZMVFJfX05IeUhrTmxCMlE&hl=en&authkey=CIGooNUI#gid=10

All are welcome!

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11227/1167402-53-0.stm

Bob Donaldson/Post-Gazette

Emily and Sten Carlson on Thursday work on refurbishing the rowhouse they have purchased on Black Street in East Liberty.

Seven brown-brick rowhouses on Black Street behind Peabody High School had been in the process of falling apart when East Liberty Development Inc. bought them out of foreclosure last year.

Since then, the agency has assembled eight more residences on the blocks within Borland, Black and Beatty streets as part of a bigger plan.

“Our goal is to help Borland Green reach their vision,” said Kendall Pelling, ELDI’s real estate project manager.

The Borland Green Ecovillage is a co-housing group of 10 households, most of which have dibs on properties in the row or nearby. A co-housing community is an assembly of residents who share a lifestyle vision.

The community started ahead of renovations by establishing a garden on a large tract that was remediated by three years of sunflower and canola planted by the non-profit GTECH. The 18,000-square-foot garden lot will be developed to include an orchard and other edible plants. East Liberty Development still owns that land and is working with the city to get title for two more parcels.

Maureen Copeland, GTECH’s community programs manager, bought and moved into the most habitable unit in May. Pat Buddemeyer, an original instigator of Pittsburgh’s co-housing movement, expects work to be done on her unit for a move from nearby Rippey Street in October.

Sten and Emily Carlson live in North Point Breeze as they renovate and restore the unit they recently bought.

For years, Ms. Buddemeyer and Maria Piantanida had been among a dozen people throughout the metropolitan area who have shared potluck dinners trying to stick together while looking for a place that was suitable or had potential to accommodate them. The group split into those who wanted to build new and this group that wanted to be in the city and reuse existing housing.

“We looked at a lot of places,” said Ms. Buddemeyer.

“The thing that has pulled us all together is all the green space here,” said Ms. Piantanida, who lives in Churchill and does not have a Borland Green move-in date.

She has agreed not to bug her husband anymore about moving there for the sake of their marriage, she said, “but I keep coming here and I keep saying I’m going to build a little hut” as a hermitage.

“I’ve lived in my neighborhood for 32 years and hardly know anybody. This is sort of where my heart is now.”

Seeing green: Patt Buddemeyer, Mo Copeland and Maria Piantanida on Black Street, part of the Borland Green Ecovillage.

Knowing your neighbors is one step ahead of the co-housing process. Bringing people together to be neighbors on purpose is the essence. Then it goes deeper.

“Sharing resources so you don’t need seven lawnmowers, just one,” said Sten Carlson.

“Having someone look out for your house while you’re out of town,” added Ms. Piantanida.

Another advantage, she said, is that elders have support while they pool their resources to get care at home instead of having to go to a nursing home.

These are the staples of what makes co-housing attractive to a growing number of people.

Diana Leafe Christian, a national expert on co-housing, said at least 116 communities are established across the country and roughly another 150 are in the stages of finding and purchasing land.

The East Liberty group paid less than $20,000 a unit for the seven townhouses on Black Street. When the slumlord owner’s portfolio blew up, Mr. Pelling said the group approached ESB Bank “to work with us so the properties would transfer well. They foreclosed and sold them to us and gave us a loan and financing for purchase and renovation.”

Of two tenants who lived there before, he said, “we’re working with them to help them buy their units. Now they have a great community around them.”

Besides those seven, the agency has a single-family house and five of six townhouses under agreement on Borland and two townhouses on Beatty. The prices of the homes range from $50,000 to $70,000.

The agency is prepared to rent or sell, and renters can “test-drive the community,” Mr. Pelling said.

“This is an affordable community that does not create barriers. Someone with a Section 8 voucher who is interested in this kind of lifestyle could be part of it.”

The Community Design Center of Pittsburgh granted $4,000 for a landscape architect. The Sprout Fund contributed $5,000 to reward Borland Green’s species biodiversity plan.

The Borland Green grant “is one of the more compelling small investments we have made,” said Mac Howison, Sprout’s funding programs manager, “and its happening quickly. It’s a success story.”

A portion of a $20,000 grant from the Heinz Endowments will pay for a cistern and rain garden.

The group also has sought the help of the Green Building Alliance on doing the most energy efficient renovations.

On Black Street, a scaffold sits in front of one home while the sound of hammers and drills around back can be heard from the street. Each unit has a porch in front and a shared area behind, where scruffy weeds pass for a lawn and rubble and construction debris are scattered about.

But already there’s a red picnic table awaiting the group’s first cook-out.

 

Join us for a Cohousing Potluck on Friday, September 16 at 6:30 pm at 5132 Friendship Ave.

Bring a dish to pass and your table service (plate, silver, and cup)
We will have napkins and paperware for those who forget
Come to Have fun and Learn more about the Pittsburgh Cohousing Community
Sign up here http://tinyurl.com/27226py

Join us for a Cohousing Potluck on Friday, Sept 16 at 6:30 pm in the house of Stefani and Doug at 5132 Friendship Ave, Pittsburgh. Bring a dish to share. Sign up at

http://tinyurl.com/27226py

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Welcome friends, new and old!

Join us for a Cohousing Potluck on Friday, May 20 at 6:15 pm at the

CARRIAGE HOUSE CONFERENCE CENTER
Western Pennsylvania Family Center
733 N. Highland Avenue
(directly across from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary – park on Highland Ave)
Pittsburgh, PA  15206 (see map)

Bring a dish to pass and your table service (plate, silver, and cup)
We will have napkins and paperware for those who forget
Come to Have fun and Learn more about the Pittsburgh Cohousing Community
Sign up here http://tinyurl.com/27226py

For more info call Danelle at 412-491-9153

If you are ready to take the next step, contact me for more advanced details

Join us for a Cohousing Potluck on Friday, March 25 at 6:15 pm at the CARRIAGE HOUSE CONFERENCE CENTER

Western Pennsylvania Family Center
733 N. Highland Avenue
(directly across from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary – park on Highland Ave)
Pittsburgh, PA  15206 (see map)

Bring a dish to pass and your table service (plate, silver, and cup)
We will have napkins and paperware for those who forget
Come to Have fun and Learn more about the Pittsburgh Cohousing Community
Sign up here http://tinyurl.com/27226py

For more info call Danelle at 412-491-9153
If you are ready to take the next step, contact me for more advanced details.

Please park on Highland Avenue and follow the luminaria!

Bring a dish to pass and your table service (plate, utensils, and cup)
We will have napkins and paperware for those who forget.

Come to Have Fun and Learn more about the Pittsburgh Cohousing Community.

Sign up here

We request a donation of $2/person to cover costs.

Bring a dish to pass and your table service (plate, silver, and cup).  We will have napkins and paperware for those who forget

Come to Have fun and Learn more about the Pittsburgh Cohousing Community

Sign up here http://tinyurl.com/27226py

For more info call Danelle at 412-491-9153 or email dardell (at) fyi (dot) net

This event is open to anyone who is interested in cohousing, not just the core group, so please pass this information along to anyone who fits this description. There will not be a formal presentation to everyone who attends this event … it’s a social gathering … but we’d all be happy to chat about possible sites, renewable energy sources and energy conservation, community, consensus, and more.

• if you’re coming for sure, please RSVP to Pat at buddem (at) att (dot) net, including the dish you wish to contribute to dinner
• if you play a musical instrument that you can bring and accompany singers, let us know that as well
• if you need a ride or just want to carpool, or if you would be interested in giving a ride to others, let Pat know at buddem (at) att (dot) net

On June 5, World Environment Day, the first net-zero energy house in Pittsburgh was celebrated. We hope that it will not be the last one. We, the Pittsburgh Cohousing Group, are a group of people who want to live in closer community with each other and with the natural world around us.

Cohousing is a concept pioneered in the 1970′s, which promotes a community of neighbors who not only live next to each other but also with each other. As in a village, we aim to get to know each other, forge relationships, create a supportive environment and nourish the larger neighborhood community. Typically, cohousing communities have a common house (or space) where members socialize and share meals, childcare, and activities.

Our love of life and all living beings prompts us to go a step further to seek ultra-energy efficient or net-zero housing, by using the newest insulation and renewable-energy technology. We believe that it is necessary to be less wasteful with fossil fuels in the face of global warming and limited resources. In addition, ultra-energy efficient houses provide a high level of comfort (no draft, good noise insulation) and save money in the long run.

It is high time that such a project be realized in Pittsburgh, which has experienced first-hand the cost of economic growth without concern for the environment, and which is now trying to become a leader towards a more sustainable and environmentally friendly society.

Currently we are looking for a suitable location for our project in the city and hope to be able to break ground soon. Interested people are always welcome to join! Our vision is to build a community devoted to environmental stewardship, which will be one of its kind in Pittsburgh today, but hopefully become a model of a lifestyle that will be embraced by many people in the future.

Members of the media are welcome to use the above information in news coverage, or to reprint the article in entirety.