We used to have neighbors that we affectionately named Cat Man and Psycho Killer. Cat Man had at least 50 cats and several raccoons that went in and out of his house through a hole in the roof.

The smell from that property prompted us and our neighbors twice to call the gas company, thinking there was a leak. Psycho Killer probably never killed anyone but he and his arsenal are a long story. And then there were the neighbors who would not let their children talk to ours since we didn't go to their church.

If you have ever had smelly, dangerous or unusual neighbors, or simply wish your neighborhood or building had friendlier residents, you might be a candidate for co-housing, a lifestyle that started decades ago in Denmark, but is still in its infancy here. About 100 co-housing communities exist in the U.S., but none are in Illinois, yet. But that is about to change.

Six interested households together have recently formed Prairie Onion Cohousing and hope to find more individuals and families to join their proposed Bronzeville development, which is planned to open in about 18 months.

The tentative proposal is for 20 living units, including 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom apartments and townhomes, on a site designated for affordable housing by the City of Chicago. Income limitations on some of the units, which will be designated affordable, would be 120 percent of the area median, or $81,480 for a family of three.

In a typical co-housing arrangement, a group of families own homes on the same street, or in the same building, and share community areas. Usually they agree to cook and eat dinner together several times a week. Participation in group activities is usually optional, but the living arrangement attracts sociable people who enjoy eating together.

While there is never any guarantee that you will like all your neighbors, in a typical co-housing arrangement, the founding group of residents have worked together to start the co-housing project. While turnover tends to be low, according to www.CoHousing.org, subsequent residents would likely self-select.

The Prairie Onion group does not have any particular ideology other than that they are interested in living in a supportive community where they know their neighbors. Their press release says nothing about the number of cats, raccoons or guns you can own, but it does suggest you won't have to cook dinner every night.

"The key idea we want to emphasize is that cohousing is not about the real estate, it's about the people who live in the real estate," says JoLynn Doerr, one of the founding members of Prairie Onion. "All of us want to live in the city knowing our neighbors and being able to count on them."

For more information: www.PrairieOnionCoHousing.org; www.CoHousing.org; (773) 854-6870.

People in the real estate business often complain that the media constantly report bad news about the economy and home prices.

But in our defense, there are several organizations that constantly update their statistics and announce the new numbers each time. One such entity is Standard & Poors/Case Shiller, which sends out nationwide home price data every 30 days. If a national data mill sends out news every 30 days, various news organizations (the ones that are left) will report it every 30 days.

It's easy to get confused by the headlines, since every headline writer will pick out a different number to highlight. Here's the short version: compare the latest numbers month to month and it looks like things are picking up. Compare today's numbers to a year ago, and it will give you chills. If you want to keep smiling, don't look back too far.

If you need a dose of negative news, though, I recommend the Standard & Poors/Case Shiller indices. If you're in the mood for some gloomy numbers, here is their March data for greater Chicago:

Sales prices for Chicago-area single family existing homes in March dropped 3.1 percent in one month and were down 18.6 percent over March 2008. The Case Shiller index compares the prices paid for the same houses the last time they sold to their most recent sales prices. So, newly constructed homes are not part of the survey, but foreclosures are.

National, state and city Realtor organizations use slightly different measurements for the next 30-day period that indicate that total sales were up 11.4 percent in April compared to March. Our area had 4,745 homes sold in April; 4,261 in March. Realtor numbers show sales prices here were flat for March and April at $220,000, but down even more over a year ago; dropping 26.7 percent from $300,000 in April 2008.

First-time buyers, armed with their $8,000 tax credits, are accounting for much of the sales, which tend to be in the lower price ranges. That's one more reason why the average or median sales prices are lower.

It's been a rainy spring.

That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it as the reason why the outside of our house has been so neglected. Our yard had more weeds than grass, a sunken place near the foundation, no flowers, and a general look of neglect.

But with a week-long furlough and a week of sunshine, I could come up with no more excuses. We ordered a truckload of dirt, bought trays of annuals, found my grandfather's old spade in the garage and proceeded to strain every muscle.

My grandpa was 95 when he died a few years ago, but he had been gardening and dancing and even jump-roping until well into his 91st year. I never heard him complain about how hard it is to pull out the invasive, nasty buckthorn weed or how his knees hurt after kneeling in flower beds for hours.

He was orphaned at age 8 and hired himself out at age 10 as a laborer before he immigrated to the U.S. to work as a farm hand for a dollar a day. He worked hard just about every day until age 93 when he started slacking off a bit.

Nowadays, many people in my town hire landscaping firms, and their perfect grounds are maintained by immigrants from other countries. Sometimes I envy those homeowners for not having to haul hundreds of pounds of dirt or mulch, but they also may be letting someone else nurture their little plants until they are showy mountains of color. And that's the best part.

I may not have inherited my grandpa's stamina, but I did inherit his love of gardening. Now I just wish I could also develop his green thumb. Their little Iowa home was surrounded by flowers all summer long, all growing profusely. And nary a nasty buckthorn to be found.