On Catherine Street ~intentional home & co-op/houseshare Room (Ypsilanti)

[Blog owner]

On Catherine Street ~intentional home & co-op (Ypsilanti, Michigan)

We have openings again and are looking for new members. Our co-op has 2 levels of involvement, one is a 2 unit cottage where members have their own separate apartment, but meet monthly year round, and participate more intensively in the garden during the garden season, and the other is a shared co-op household with furnished rooms and a guest room for use by members.

We're a place for you if you are responsible, genuinely concerned about climate change and lifestyle change ~ open to sharing with members of all ages around bettering your sustainable living skills, learning organic gardening & permaculture for food growing, participating in things like food preserving, composting, vermiculture, beekeeping...and community timebanking.(at hOur Exchange Ypsilanti)...willing to give a minimum commitment of 1 or 2 years minimum.

Intentional home & co-op (Ypsilanti) has openings ~ Furnished room in lovely home -

Share an entire, welcoming and spacious house, and share/co-create an organic garden project together with others. Co-op house beginning over from scratch. Desiring housemates receptive to intentional community ~ mature, with either alanon long term recovery or similar well grounded and communication focused person with thoughtful process in mind (NVC?) for working on co-equal relationships and working thru issues/conflicts ~cooking one meal/week and being available for at least 2 meals /week as a household
2 low impact living striving Ypsi houses share a garden area together -- two openings currently in Historic So Side 1860 house. Private & antique furnished bedroom $500/mo for smaller room when its available,

[For more pictures of this bedroom see this link]

$600 + larger bedroom with poster bed when available ~ ( for pictures of this bedroom 

(For couple add $200 for extra person per room, and per person share of utilities.

includes access to full house with hi speed wireless, washer/dryer, [disposal, dishwasher used very infrequently], small enclosed private back yard with barbecue/table area & use of guest room for guests of household members..

For pictures of the Largest upper bedroom & nearby sitting room

Pictures of the whole nine yards.... progression from shared house, neighborhood to cottage and garden

Features: fully furnished, Individualized lease, washer and dryer, Utilities include: cable, wireless internet, trash, Only responsible for fair share portion of utilities bill ~ ie bills divided by #of household members.

Please note: This is a non-smoking house, ~ we keep the co-op house clean via sharing chores and clean up ~~ for both the house and the garden. Little TV except the occasional movie. Working toward being a small carbon footprint home, opening windows at night (summer) and closed during the heat of the day. You're someone who works at recycling everything you can and are willing to compost all organic waste for the garden. In the winter you're fine with working with keeping a fire going when home ~ our fireplace insert which functions like a woodstove so that we can use a renewable fuel to reduce heat costs. You can heat a pot of tea on the stove or a pot of soup...see: this link)house%20in%20winter%20fire%20going%20dr.jpg

You: You love organic gardening, are an aspiring urban farmer or admirer of urban farming, enjoy both sharing the responsibility & process of working in one as well ..as eating the produce. You're resourceful and not afraid of doing hard work like turning compost or digging up weeds, plants, building raised beds, watching over bees and our beehive or taking out the garbage/compost.

In fact you've been wanting to take the time, and wishing you had the opportunity, to do these sorts of things

~ you're the sort of person who would take initiative to pick up branches in the yard and put them in the kindling pile (not decide that's your 'landlord's' problem), problem solve and fix a rain barrel that seems to not be working right, or to see helping plan and 'barn raise' a hoop-house as great stuff you're wanting to roll up your sleeves and do.

You're the sort who would absolutely know that in any situation you have everyday house chores to do, and you are used to doing them, ~~~~~ this of course along with the new "sustainability" chores like filling a wood box, emptying the fireplace ash, taking a turn with planting the garden, watering the garden, sharing in the weeding of the garden, turning compost....

Picture of me (I manage the co-op) :

Openings in house as housemate for someone who is thinking long term for Ypsi, ~ who plans to be around and knows a sense of commitment to projects and who's open to co-oping/sharing with others, and wanting to work on community, communicating and working thru problems with others with care, ie if you're coming to the area to work as a pilot and simply want a "crash pad" - this is not the place for you! ; )

We helped start and participate in AMPY. Check it out.

Here's the garden - its at the Depot Town cottage where we're
slowly turning lawn into garden:

Interested? Please send an email about yourself w/your telephone number:

And tell us things like: terested? Please send an email about yourself w/your telephone number, a real email address:

1) Profession/passion
2) Why you want to live in a coop, and what does that mean to you?
3) Why you are leaving your current place?
4) What you would add to our cooperative (talents, skills, experience)
5) Say a bit about your past cooperative/gardening/workshare living experience
6) What you do in your free time, interests/hobbies/talents
7) Weeknights when you can interview
8) Phone #, real email address so we can leave craigslist behind
9) Can you afford the rent? ~ have a stable work situation?
10) Do you understand that doing a garden together means you need to be around to put the garden in together and to nurture it along? Experience?
11) Do you like to cook, what do you like? omnivore, vegetarian, vegan?
12) What do you do to stay centered during times that are challenging/difficult ~ a routine or spiritual practice?