Cohousing-L Mailing List: [no subject]

[King Collins (greenmac]

To whom it may concern:

Re. Cooperative Household Forming in Ukiah, CA

Summary. After a brief discussion of my background in cooperative living
and community activism, there is an announcement of intention to establish
a small housing cooperative. Two of us are looking for a third person (or
couple) who wants to share mortgage and live cooperatively in the Ukiah
area.

I wonder if it would be within the standards of this list to give more
details about the house and the situation for the purpose of finding
someone? I hope so. Here goes:

My circumstances may be different from many of you. Maybe not. I've lived
in communes of sorts and in extended family dwellings in the past. I
enjoyed the cooperative life and learned a lot from the experience. My
friends and I learned how to work and live in what others might think were
very crowded conditions. One of the reasons we were able to stay together
was our mutual interest in neighborhood projects and local community
issues. I wouldn't want to  repeat everything about those experiences,
especially the lack of privacy, but on the whole, those were very happy
days.

I live in Ukiah, a town of 15,000 in Mendocino County about 100 miles north
of San Francisco.  The overall environment is excellent. Clean air and
plenty of water. Wet winters, hot summers, perfect spring and fall. Schools
are good. Streets are safe. There is a fairly large subculture of
ex-hippies and back to the land folks. This part of Northern California is
not just a supplier of good grapes, cannabis and forest products, but also
of sustainable agriculture, renewable energy and other innovations.
Northern California also has more cohousing projects than any other part of
the country, although there is no active cohousing group in Ukiah at this
time.

After 20 years of running our own businesses and raising kids together--our
youngest will be graduating from high school soon--my wife and I have
decided to part. She is looking for less cooperative living and I for more.
We are on very friendly terms but have decided to go our separate ways.

Another friend of the family, a single man, is interested in buying into
the house. The two of us are looking for another person or couple to share
ownership of the house (3 bed, 3 bath) and live cooperatively. That person
or couple would need about $50,000 collateral to buy into the house, and an
interest in community living. Later, perhaps, we might become the core
group for a larger cohousing project.

If this idea interests you, send a note or call.

Sincerely,

king collins



King Collins and Joan Kelley
296 Gardens Ave.
Ukiah, CA 95482
Voice: (707) 462-4543
   Fax: (707) 462-6873
   Net: greenmac [at] pacific.net