Co-housing Info
For more information on co-housing developments in Snohomish County and elsewhere, visit the following Web sites:
The Herald Sunday March 17, 2002
| These are some of the homes at the Sharingwood co-housing development near Woodinville. Residents share access to a common house that includes a playroom and library. |
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Co-housing InfoFor more information on co-housing developments in Snohomish County and elsewhere, visit the following Web sites: |
Sharingwood, in south Snohomish County, and other
co-housing developments offer many families just what they've been looking for:
A sense of
COMMUNITY
By Jennifer Langston
Herald Writer
| A few years after Charlie Lucas graduated from college, he moved into a downtown Seattle condominium thinking it would be easy to meet people.
He never did get to know his neighbors, he said. People worked hard to maintain their privacy. In the elevators they just looked at the floor. "You're living in downtown Seattle surrounded by hundreds of thousands of people and nobody talks to one another," he said. Last summer the computer chip designer and his future wife moved to Sharingwood, a co-housing development on 40 acres in south Snohomish County, where they found exactly the kind of community they'd been missing. It's one of two co-housing communities in the county. More than a dozen are either built or under development around the Puget Sound area. |
 Karen Mainer (left) and Cindy Pivac prepare dinner for about 30 people in the common house dining area at Sharingwood. |
A typical co-housing development has several dozen private homes clustered around common buildings and walkways. The residents often share meals together a few times a week. They may have collective child care. Each has its own character and its own rules, established by the people who live there.
In the last two years alone, the number of completed developments nationwide has doubled recently to at least 60, according to the Cohousing Network based in Boulder, Colo. The biggest draws are a greater opportunity to connect with neighbors and a safe place to raise kids, with lots of watchful eyes and help in teaching right and wrong, residents say.
"I think there's been a clamoring for community for quite some time," said Zev Paiss, executive director of the network. "But unlike traditional subdivisions that sell the concept of community, co-housing developments actually provide it."
At Sharingwood, recently built houses with wide and inviting front porches are clustered around a communal garden. Tricycles and toys are scattered along the pedestrian walkway that connects the homes. The entire development has 30 lots, with several still vacant. One lot and two homes are for sale.
The 50 adults and 35 kids who live there generally don't bother to knock before entering another house. They simply open the door and announce their presence with a hello. They eat meals together three to four times a week in a common house a short walk away, as long as enough people volunteer to cook and clean.
The common house -- reminiscent of a summer camp cafeteria with big round tables -- also has an indoor play room for kids and library with books and a computer. People are encouraged to slip nice notes in a cloth wall hanging with individual pockets for each resident.
The families, couples and singles at Sharingwood don't share any religious beliefs or political persuasions. Some own homes, others rent. But they do share ladders, lawnmowers and tools. They have a movie night on Tuesdays at a basement studio in one of the homes.
The kids at Sharingwood tend to run in packs, roaming the woods and watching wildlife in a 25-acre greenbelt that remains undeveloped. There's no organized child care program, but three families trade baby-sitting responsibilities one night a week so the other couples can go on dates.
Cindy Pivac, who moved to Sharingwood two years ago to work as a caregiver for its 89-year-old founder Shirley Risser, said it's a great place for a single mom. Her 6-year-old son spends every waking minute outdoors with other kids. With so many adults around, she knows if he's done something wrong before he gets home.
People gladly do favors, she said. When someone sent out a mass e-mail saying she was snowed in and asking someone to pick up a gallon of milk on the way home, the person ended up with 15 offers. "It's almost like an ideal large extended family," Pivac said. "No matter how you're getting along with people, if you need help, you know it's taken care of."
The residents meet once a month to make decisions both large and small, like whether to carpet the common house, to increase the member fees of $25 a month or to put a conservation easement on the undeveloped acreage.
Martin Tracy, a technical writer at Microsoft, bought a lot in Sharingwood after a nationwide search of co-housing developments. He wanted to build his own home, live in a beautiful place and have a greater opportunity to connect with people around him. He said it's a lifestyle that either immediately appeals to people or turns them off. It's not for people who crave privacy or have trouble with collaboration and compromise.
"There are 50 adults who live here and I have a fair idea of where most of them are right now, and a fair idea of what's in their refrigerators," he said.
But for people who relish conversation and connections, it works in spades. A few weeks after moving to Sharingwood, Lucas discovered that he and his wife were going to have a baby. He can't imagine a better place to raise a child, he said. "I can't picture not living in a community like this," he said.
You can call Herald Writer Jennifer Langston at 425-339-3452
or send e-mail to langston@heraldnet.com.
| Children ride their scooters at a playfield that is part of the Sharingwood development. |
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