Cohousing-L Mailing List: finding a cohousing home from far away

[Arlene Hoffman (ahoffman]

Dear cohousers,

I hope I am using this list properly; its my first time being part of any
mailing list. If I do something wrong please explain kindly.

Can anyone share helpful experience in finding a cohousing home when you
live far, far away? Also, does anyone know of a cohousing place we could
rent for part of the summer or of an opening in a community we could fit
into? (See the end of this letter.)

My husband and I used to live in a cooperative vegetarian household of 8
adults. We especially loved the shared cooking and meals. But we got tired
of driving many hours and staying  out of town to work during the week, so
we moved from Austin to Houston (Texas) about 10 years ago in order to live
and earn our living in the same place. We started following the cohousing
movement then, and have attended some conventions in Boulder with great
excitement. When we moved to Houston, we promised ourselves that within 5
years (ha!) we'd move near some mountains (we love hiking in the
mountains), and we really want to live in a cohousing community. We now
have two boys, ages 7 and 3, who desperately need playmates and the ability
to explore their neighborhood in safety. They can't go out to play without
us where we live.

We've been reading the ads and lists in the Cohousing journal with wishful
hearts all these years but we haven't been able to figure out how to make
it happen. We can't make many plane trips to attend meetings. Bringing all
of us would mean buying 4 tickets, and we wouldn't want to send Henry off
alone on too many weekends. We don't want to start out now with a newly
forming group, because our kids really need to be in such a community now,
not 5 years or more from now. Has anyone tried "attending" meetings by
telephone or communicating primarily by e-mail? Could we and the other
members get to know and trust one another enough? Probably best of all
would be to find an opening in a completed or nearly completed community.
How quickly do those open units sell? Is there time to get to know the
community before you buy? I imagine the openings are snatched up before we
could even make a 14-day advance plane reservation, let alone have time to
correspond with the members and get to know them well plus explore the job
possibilities.

Another problem we face is how we would earn a living when we get there. My
husband at the very least would need to be near an airport so he could
visit his clients. He develops risk management software for the energy
industry, and in the past he has designed databases for the medical and
industrial hygiene departments of a big oil company. We hope he would be
able to actually do some of his work from home, but we don't feel terribly
confident of this. I think I could do some work as a medical writer and
editor via the Internet, but I haven't been able to earn much while raising
my family. I was comforted to receive the recent list mailings about the
issue of having to be away from your wonderful communities all of the time
working at high stress jobs just to pay the mortgages. At least we would
not be alone in facing this problem.

For anyone who knows of an opening, what we need is room for a family of 4
(shared bedrooms OK) plus home office space for 2 and good internet
connections, not too far from an airport, in a community that provides for
vegans at common meals and has  lots of kids in the 2-10 age range,
preferably with interesting outdoor places kids can explore on their own,
and preferably within a few hours of good mountain hiking.

Thanks for reading and for any ideas you can offer!

Arlene Hoffman
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Arlene Hoffman
ahoffman [at] visualimage.com