Just moved to Central Coast for Cohousing

[rachel1198]

Hi All,

Dh and I just moved from NJ to Paso Robles CA with our two ds's 4 yo and 21 mo. I have found lots of CC and AP families in RL here so far but was wondering if any of you are interested in cohousing. I am so excited about having a real life tribe and my boys are already benifiting from having other families and seniors around them. Oak Creek is about to break ground in a month or so and we still have some homes left. Check it out!

www.oakcreekcommons.org

warm regards,
Rachel

[sapsygo]

Congrats!

That sounds wonderful. I've checked out your community's website in the past and it looks beautiful. It's exciting to see a community come together like yours has.

We're interested in cohousing as well, but further up the coast from where you are. There seems to be a group forming up right near us (and the possibility of others in the general area) so maybe someday we'll be joining a community too!

Best wishes and congrats again on your move!

Amber

[sapsygo]

I had a question if you don't mind me asking...

Were you involved in all the planning stages while you still lived in NJ, or did you buy in once things were pretty much settled?

I'm curious because we've been wondering if we really want to stay in this area (and if we can afford it!) but I don't know how it would be to try and get involved in planning a new community from a distance (we're thinking of an area about 3-4 hrs away) and I'm not sure we want to move up to that area just to move again to a cohousing community a couple (few?) years later.

Anyways, if you have any experience with this, I'd love to hear it!

Thanks,
Amber

[rachel1198]

Hello,

We moved here to be apart of the cohousing neighborhood a few months ago, once we settled on an area. Much of the work was done as far as buildings and so on. I think one could be apart of a community but we found it very difficult to feel in the loop while in NJ and when we got out here it took a month or so just to get up to speed. Starting a group of this size from a great distance IMO would be almost impossible. Possibly if you were looking for retrofit and kept it small, but I don't know what your goals are. We do have many members who live three or more hours away who travel back and forth until move in day. Make yourself clear about what you want from the beginning when attracting members, especially if you would all have to relocate and find employment. We actually have several people here who don't have paid employment and who work full time to get Oak Creek off the ground and it has been three years now. Good Luck!! It is a lot of hard work, but we are just about to break ground in a few weeks and this part is so exciting. I wish it for anyone who dreams of cohouisng and family.

warm regards,
Rachel