Mark your calendars...
  • Feb. 15 - Creating a Culture of Cohousing 6-8 p.m. 
  • Feb. 24 - Site Tour & Neighborhood Walk 10 a.m. 
Newsletter Preview
  • Why choose cohousing anyways?
  • A Bicycling Perspective
  • We Asked our Consultant, Katie: "What's the Risk?"
  • Becoming an Explorer
Valentine Edition: Celebrating Connection!
Love, Caring and Connection: It’s what we all crave, but our busy, car-oriented world makes it difficult to build meaningful relationships. Cohousing creates warm, connected communities and in that connection we grow and find points of mutual support and satisfaction.
PDX Commons is a newly developed cohousing community in Portland, OR
Why Choose Cohousing Anyways?
At our recent Cohousing 101 Workshop at the Natural Foods Coop, our panelists spoke about the many ways their lives have been enriched by living in this type of community. 
Trish Ryan talked about how her life has changed in just 2 years since she moved into Southside Cohousing in Sacramento – the increased support, connections and friendship has given richness to her life.

John Szostek of spoke movingly of coming from Chicago to join Fair Oaks EcoHousing and how he anticipates his relationship with his wife will deepen by living in community. 

Stan Dawson , now in his 80’s, commented about the ongoing support, friendship and caring in Glacial Circle Cohousing in Davis. 

Kevin Wolf talked about the many students who, having once lived in the N Street Cohousing Community, seek to continue to live with deep community connections.
Southside Park Cohousing in Sacramento
What is cohousing?  
Cohousing is an intentional neighborhood where you actually know your neighbors. In our case, we will be creating an intergenerational community with a new 4-5 story structure consisting of 25-30 condominium flats of varying sizes combined with extensive community facilities

As noted in the recent article in the New York Times , this will be a community – not a commune. Each household will have its own private flat.
What do you need to know to take your next step?
Come to a site tour. Come to our Culture of Cohousing Series. Ask your questions. Get answers. Become an Explorer member and dig deeper. This is the time! 

If you have been thinking like we have about the importance of community and about the potential of being part of the first cohousing community in West Sacramento – Now is the time to get involved.
Get to know the community at an upcoming event!
Join us for a great discussion!
Creating a Culture of Cohousing:
Celebrating Day to Day Connections
Thursday evening discussion, February 15th
6 – 8 p.m. – light refreshments
What’s it like living in cohousing? How will our life patterns change when we move into our cohousing community? What are the savings – in money, in time, in connection?

Proximity creates many opportunities – for short conversations, as well as spontaneous events. It’s about little things and big things. We’ll take a look at this as we continue to probe into what it means to live in Cohousing. 

Our evening discussions have been enjoyable and informative. We have learned from each other and gotten to know each other. Come be a part of the dialogue.
Come out and see the site!
Site Tour, Neighborhood Walk & Talk
Saturday, February 24 at 10am
Meet at 4th and G Streets
Our Saturday Morning Site Tour is a great way to see our special location and envision the kind of structure and community that we will be creating together. 

It’s also a great way to meet others and through questions, answers and discussion get a better idea of what it is like to be “in community”.

Our neighborhood walk will be along the Sacramento River to the Crocker Museum or a nearby coffee house where we will continue the discussion of what’s involved to make this happen. 

We will outline the development process, the estimated costs and how to become a member and get involved. It will be a great time to get your questions answered. See you at 4th and G!

RSVP to Janet Wilson at janetdwilson@earthlink.net .
We asked Katie, "What's the Risk?"
We are fortunate to have Katie McCamant as our consultant and advisor. Katie has been at this since the beginning. She and her previous partner, architect Chuck Durrett brought the cohousing idea to this country in 1987. Katie has been involved in numerous cohousing endeavors in California, other states and abroad.

If you have a viable property with zoning that allows for what you want to do (which we do), and you are realistic about the cost, your group is much more likely to be successful.

We asked Katie, “In your experience, what has been the failure rate for cohousing ventures?” Her answer is very encouraging to us.  She said, “Once a group reaches critical mass of 8-10 members and begins the design process, it has a nearly 100% chance of success.”  

She added that in her 30+ years of experience helping to create numerous cohousing communities whether as an architect, developer or now as a consultant, she has witnessed only one financial failure; and this happened as part of the 2008 downturn. Getting to this critical mass of 8-10 members, she underscored, is one of the most difficult steps in building a cohousing community.   

We are nearly there! We know many people who want to be part of this but have been concerned about the risk. We encourage those of you who have a desire for a vital cohousing community to give yourself the gift of joining our community.  
Event Recap: A Bicycling Perspective
We enjoyed a special bicycle tour around the Riverfront neighborhoods of West Sacramento led by local transportation expert, Chris Dougherty.

Not only was it a beautiful day, but Chris gave us a perspective of what is coming to our neighborhood, and how it is evolving to become a more walkable, bikeable, and vibrant mixed-use neighborhood.  Extensive new commercial and residential development is planned, punctuated by art installations along the Riverwalk.
West Sacramento is dedicated to accelerating the new development with infrastructure support.

In our Washington Neighborhood, a massive upgrade to the water and sewer systems is underway. New bicycle and pedestrian improvements will be made as well. The City’s plan is to have this area “developer ready” so the planned housing and commercial facilities can begin without delay.
New transportation for the area includes...

two bridges, streetcars as well as new bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. The streetcar across Tower Bridge will connect our neighborhood to the AMTRAK Station and other downtown destinations. The new bridge connecting 3rd and C Streets to Railyards Boulevard is expected to get under construction in 2019. The old I Street Bridge will remain as a bicycle pedestrian way with the old ramps removed and the surrounding area made into an extension of the Riverwalk Park.
Several of us tried the “Bike the Tower” shared bikes.  Chris noted that this system is another ingredient of making it easy to move around the area. We learned we can use the bicycles, stop and drop them off at many convenient locations in West Sacramento and the downtown area.
We felt excited by the prospect of all that is happening in this area!

Thanks to Explorer, Stu Pettygrove for organizing this event and to Chris for sharing with us and for his work to bring this urban revitalization into reality.   
Become an Explorer with us!
Not sure if this is for you? Become an Explorer member and dig deeper. This will give you the opportunity to become involved, participate in our business meetings (as a non-voting member), get to know the group and see how we work together. 

You’ll be given a binder of our materials including an extensive preliminary budget and other information about the development process. Additionally, you will receive a copy of “ Creating Cohousing” written by our expert consultant Katie McCamant and Chuck Durrett. 

We will brief you on these materials. Explorer membership is $250. If you become a full member within 6 months the $250 will be deducted from your initial membership investment of $2,000. 
Mark your calendar for March and April
Washington Commons Business Meeting: March 5, 2018
(Open to Members & Explorers)

Next Site Tour & Neighborhood Walk: March 10, 2018

Regional Cohousing Conference in Boulder CO: April 20-22, 2018
Want to live in a vibrant and connected community walkable and bikeable to Downtown?! Well, Washington Commons might just be your dream living situation, but we need you to make it happen!
For more information on Washington House Cohousing, please visit our website and check out our meetup page .

If you think you're ready to take the next step to live in community, consider becoming an Explorer Member !