A boomer’s dream of communal living comes true
The communal living experience that my husband and I started creating about 3 years ago is working beyond our dreams. We live in an urban townhouse in the Skinker-Debaliviere neighborhood. Our neighborhood consists of a lot of students, many families who moved here in the seventies, Washington University professors and young entrepeneurs. We can walk to Forest Park, Washington University, our new grocery store and restaurants and cafes in the Delmar Loop. We have a choice of 3 metrolink stops.
Our neighbor to the east has lived here since he was 2 (he’s in his fifties now). He shares the 2 family flat with his sister. We like to “porch sit” on summer evenings. We share some cocktails – usually Deep Eddy’s grapefruit vodka and some cheese – and chit-chat with our neighbors as they walk by. We also spend Halloween together greeting the neighborhood kids and sharing jokes and candy.
We share a hallway and more with our neighbors to the west. The shared hallway is what got us started with the communal living idea. My friend up the street found a wonderful children’s kitchen in the alley (leftover from a move). We have a 3 year old grandchild and our neighbors have a 2 year old so we opted to set the little kitchen up in the front hallway. The 2 year old loves to come out and play with it especially in the morning. After serving up a couple of tempting imaginary dishes to his dad, he will knock on our door to have a morning chat and possibly a glass of water with his best pal, my husband Ron. We have also added a grown up table to our hallway. The adults work jigsaw puzzles here. Sometimes we work the puzzles and eat from-scratch brownies made by our neighbor.
This year we took the fence separating our backyards down and have set up a backyard for the 2 year old to play in and the grownups to party in. It’s somewhat like the trunks of little women looking at the differences in style between the 2. We have added a place to allow the kids and adult visitors to show off their artistic skills. It’s so much fun to come home to this.
My husband and I absolutely love our communal living lifestyle. It has brought great joy to our daily life and added many new friends and relationships. Since we’ve initiated it, we have learned that it is a happening thing is some of the bigger cities, especially New York. Click here for some other ideas that may inspire you to do the same: Golden Girls, Living like a College Student, Millenials.
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