HOUSEMATE: A Practical Guide to Living with Other People

Not sitcom situations but ""creative alternatives to living alone"" in an era of nontraditional households and punitive housing costs. Tone and Sclar, veterans of group living, don't gush: if such arrangements solve problems, and offer pluses (companionship, expanding interests), they also create problems--which, however, can be anticipated and avoided, minimized, or resolved. To illustrate the possibilities of teaming-up (and dispel readers' fears), the authors describe how ""overworked,"" ""overwrought,"" overextended San Franciscans Nancy and Garland took in student boarder-helpers; how conventional, middle-class, abandoned mother-of-two Mary eased into house-sharing with widow Hilda and her daughter; how the Millers and the Jasons, professional couples and old friends, became the proud owners of a Victorian relic (and squabbled over renovations). Then it's time for the actualities: visualizing the ideal housemate (including money/service tradeoffs), and locating and selecting the right person (with smart tips on telephone and face-to-face interviews); arranging finances (why not to include utilities, how to tabulate expenses), sharing property (space, furnishings, appliances), and splitting up housework (complete to care of pets and plants). Kitchen arrangements--cooking, cleaning-up, ""pilfering"" food--come in for special attention. Also such touchy questions as overnight guests, unruly kids, and divergent tastes in music. The authors are firm on rules, and flexible about remedies; in conclusion, they discuss weekly household meetings, keeping within the law, and painless parting. Congenial guidance, geared to ordinary humans.