Rooms Open: January 1st, 2022

What: Two open rooms for rent in a three floor communal house with 2.5 bathrooms.

Where: Brambleberry, in Cambridgeport, a block from the banks of the Quinobequin River.

Room 1: 100 sq ft, with a south facing window, letting in morning light. By the bar on the second floor, which has two other bedrooms, the living room, and a full bathroom.

Room 2: 100 sq ft, with a south facing window. By the kitchen on the first floor, which has two other bedrooms, the dining room, and a full bathroom.

Rent: is monthly and covers utilities and shared expenses (including groceries) with the option to buy into collective ownership.

The communal spaces include a dining room with a robot arm, a bar with disco ball, a quiet library that’s an odd shape, a living room with movie projector, decks, a garden with a maple tree.

Note: The building is not currently wheelchair accessible.

This purple house is Brambleberry, started in 1999 when a few MIT grads decided to buy a house together, which seemed easier than dealing with a landlord.

Since then, no fewer than 62 people have lived here at one time or another, including those of us living here today, a group of 27 to 33 year olds who love to cook food, watch movies, make fancy cocktails, and build pizza ovens.

Some of us are queer, some of us are immigrants/children of immigrants, some of us are POC, some of us have spiritual commitments, and some of us are white and from Colorado. All of us are interested in living and growing together in community. For some reason, we want to share our lives with other people. It's probably because it's super cool to spend time with people you really like. But maybe it's because we’re weird and really stubborn.

We don’t just live with each other; the way we care for one another more closely resembles a family. This means working on things like open, direct, and kind communication and nurturing our relationships with each other and the beings around us -- people, machines, plants, trees, fungal friends, and beyond. Through living together, the callousness of life is smoothied. And smoothies are tasty.

We are *RAD* and good at *COLLAGING*. We are full of *BONES*.

Some of the things different housemates dedicate our time to are working with our hands, making art & music, academia, graduate studies, making bread, connecting to cultural roots, education administration, film, self-inquiry, movement & dance, photography, healing, engineering, health, and learning, always.

What’s it like around here?

The coffee is ground at 7:30am. The zojirushi chimes when it’s ready to make chai. Breakfast club begins as other housemates awaken. You can choose between cow milk, oat milk, almond milk, and soy milk to top off your coffee. Those of us who have in person commitments scurry off before we’re late; many of us still work from home, sometimes alone and sometimes together in common spaces.

After drinking coffee, we really appreciate our three bidets.

You know it’s lunchtime when the other zojirushi chimes, letting us know that the rice is ready. We scavenge the right fridge to see if there are any leftovers to eat. We might start a lunch club, but many of us are afraid of the commitment. Regardless, we share all our groceries and cook for each other and our friends (without commitment, but with generosity).

Night falls. We’re all back home. Someone cooks dinner, or we just have chips and salsa (or frozen dumplings). A film starts playing in the movie room. It’s from the criterion collection. Cocktails at the bar. We make a freakin’ three layer cake for fun? OR we’re all busy, and stay in our rooms all night, and it’s dead quiet. In the morning, we like the idea of making music, and sometimes it happens.

We like to make jokes and have fun with each other. We also look out for each other and try to listen and respond to what we might each need. Sometimes we stumble, but we’re committed to building a community that we all feel comfortable in.

Sometimes we fight and sometimes this model of living together feels overwhelming. When we’re ready, we like to talk about it and we learn from it, the best we can.

We have folks over on the reg for Pizza Friday, or Shabbat dinner, or bangers and mash.

We’ve rented a moon bounce for a birthday party. It’s been a while since we’ve hosted big parties but sometimes we or our friends host events here: open mics, music recitals, brunches, reunions!

There is at least as much conversation as food. We like to spend quality time together, sharing in the form of hearing about each other’s days, silliness, and big picture conversations.

We put a tree on our back and put it on the roof. Now we hope it survives the winter.

We care for our home. We clean our counters and floors (through our counters-wipe initiative), we do our dishes and the few extra that were left behind. We paint our walls when the rooms need new energy. We fix our plumbing when our pipes show their age. Some of this we do individually, or together on our monthly(ish) work days.

And finally, before bed, one of us makes sure all the doors are locked.

COVID safety is an on-going conversation and we check in regularly. Many hours of discussion, email, decision-making, and negotiating have gone into our COVID protocols, especially before the vaccine rollout. Everyone currently in the house is vaccinated, and we currently have guests over indoors. Whenever we want to have larger gatherings, we check in and calibrate according to our collective comfort levels. During the warmer season, we generally try to have gatherings outdoors in our backyard.  

Furry friends Topo the dog lives in the house part-time, and we have occasional dog visitors. Some residents have allergies to cats and shedding dogs.

We strive to experience life fully, collaboratively and inclusively, and we try to unlearn the ideas around how the world "should" be that we learned growing up. Sometimes that looks like grappling with societal forces like white supremacy, racism, heteropatriarchy, etc. Sometimes that looks like examining our deeply held convictions.

We’re still crafting our vision, answering the question of “why we want to do this thing” and coming to shared understandings of how our processes work, how we create belonging, etc. If any of this kind of loving labor excites you - definitely let us know!

We are looking for someone who

• Wants to actively participate in this community,
• Wants to create meaningful connections with their housemates,
• Values the collective and the individual,
• Is capable of the fundamental things: reliability, safe relationship with alcohol & other drugs, participating in house meetings, and cleaning,
• Welcomes vulnerability, learning, failing, trying again, and growing.

We would love to hear from you

• What is your name and what are your pronouns?
• Who are you? What is it like to have you around? What else might we want to learn about you?

• As a house we’re actively seeking to cultivate a diverse and inclusive community, so to the extent that you feel comfortable, please include any information you think might help us get to know you.

• Why do you want to live in community? Have you before? Why this community? What does community mean to you? What communities are you a part of?
• How long do you see yourself living here?
• When you're part of a group of people living together, what roles do you tend to play/gravitate toward? What is most characteristic about the way you relate to others day to day, and co-create “home”? What is most important to maintaining a healthy and happy home when living with other people?
• What are your current COVID safety practices?
• What is your move-in availability? How long would you ideally stay?

• The room is officially available from Jan. 1, but if you would need a later move-in date, let us know and we can try to figure something out.

• When do you need to hear back from us?
• Do you have questions for us?

Super Serious Question: On a cold wintry day, a small green leaf lands on your shoulder. Where did it come from?

E-mail us at brambleberry.field.reports@gmail.com

and we’ll set up a time to chat!  
(⁎⁍̴̛ᴗ⁍̴̛⁎)