Realife Cooperative is independent, interactive

“People don’t know what we are,” comments Realife Cooperative board member Nancy Bushlack. “I know they see our sign and get curious, because every once in a while, someone stops in to ask.”

The Realife Cooperative building occupies about a half a block of land in the 1200 block of Third Street Northeast. Its one-level brick exterior provides something of a puzzle, curving around a 13-space parking lot but also sporting garage doors.

“We are independent senior living,” declares housing director Caryn Wendt. “That’s really the only way to describe us.”

Inside Realife is a combination of features which begins with 22 living spaces that are not exactly apartments. Instead, they are “units” owned by their occupants by virtue of having purchased a share in the cooperative. The units come in a variety of floor plans and are in varying sizes with either one or two bedrooms.

The units are joined by a fifth of a mile of hallways which connect the occupants to their neighbors, to their rented garages, their designated storage rooms, and an array of spaces available for residents to gather for community activities, or to sign out to be used for gatherings of friends or family.

Among those shared spaces is a large community room complete with a kitchen, with tables and chairs to seat 30 people or more.

According to Bushlack, the space is used for voluntary gatherings including weekly Pfeffer and “hand and foot” card games, and for a monthly party to celebrate birthdays and play a few rounds of bingo.

Also available to all is a quiet library space, a whirlpool bath area, two coin-free laundry spaces, a craft and exercise room, and a guest bedroom very similar in design to a typical hotel room. An elected board organizes activities, receives and handles concerns, and oversees the sign-out process for shared facilities. One project is a voluntary “morning check,” when a volunteer walks through the building confirming participants have put out their “I’m okay” cards.

“In some ways we’re like a big family,” stated Bushlack. “We look out for each other.”

Another advantage is that residents can travel without worrying about the security of their property.

Residents, who must be at least 62 to be eligible for membership,  take care of their own needs and their own spaces, including shopping, cleaning, and having the right to remodel, after showing their plans to the board. A monthly maintenance fee covers heat, water, electricity,  and cable connections, as well as costs to maintain and manage the property as a whole.

What residents don’t take care of, Wendt and Bushlack point out, are tasks like mowing the lawn, shoveling snow, painting the exterior of the building or having the roof repaired. Those are tasks are overseen by Wendt, as the housing director, and paid out of the maintenance fees managed by Lifestyle Management, located in Owatonna, which also oversees the finances and operation of a number of similar cooperatives in the region.

According to documents the cooperative distributes, the Waseca building was constructed in 1989.

Board member and resident Karen Ferch has been living at Realife with her husband Vern for the past three years after downsizing from a two-story home. For the two of them, she said, the cooperative provided an ideal way to scale down the responsibilities and complications of home maintenance.

“I sure don’t miss the stairs,” she commented. “I love having one level, having hallways to walk in, people to visit with. Everything is clean and well maintained, and the people are congenial and likable.”

Apparently Ferch is not alone in her assessment. Of the 22 units in the cooperative, one is available for the time being—although there are nine people on a waiting list who have first rights to decide whether the space meets their needs. Of the board members who met for the interview leading to this news piece, the typical wait for a suitable unit was between two and three years.