Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: interest in developing a group for 50+ .....

[Mary and Joe Buckingham (moonshine]

This is a follow up to Marganne's letter regarding a group for 50+ with or 
without much family.
My husband and I are both interested in such a group.  We are long time 
Alaskan's and eager for a change, but without much direction.  We have given 
cohousing a lot of thought and followed this list serve for a couple of years.  
 Due to the distance and remoteness of Alaska we are ready for a change.  But 
like Marganne the thought of such a move that seemed so easy 30 years ago, is 
now intimidating.
We did visit a few cohousing projects while outside Alaska a year ago, but none 
in depth.  We were never at the right place at the right time it seemed.
Regards,
Mary & Joe in Anchorage, Alaska
(a long way from the main stream)
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 6
> Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 01:20:53 -0700
> From: Marganne <marganne [at] macnexus.org>
> Subject: [C-L]_ How to develop a group for 50+ without family
> To: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
> Message-ID: <a06230935c2a919367de5@[192.168.0.2]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
> 
> At 5:10 PM -0600 9/1/05, Rick Mockler wrote:
> >Coho US has two upcoming workshops which will offer a great boost to
> >groups recruiting new members and planning to work with 
> developers 
> >and builders.  These are intended for a national audience.  
> Please 
> >pass this on to your coho group's listserve!
> 
> I was really excited about the prospect of connecting up with 
> like-minded cohousers and joining a project. Then I started 
> considering things like: Will I like living in Vermont or Ithaca? 
> I 
> was born and raised in California. At age 20 or 30 I probably 
> could 
> have made the jump easily. But at age 50+ with some physical 
> restrictions, I'm less likely to make the leap before looking.
> 
> I decided I needed to slow down and perhaps live in some vastly 
> different geographical areas in a rental before committing to a 
> project if I could find 'like minded' individuals.
> 
> All of this prospect still overwhelms me which is why I pulled 
> back 
> from keeping up with posts to this list and the small house 
> listserv. 
> There's no way I could 'spearhead' formation of a group -- my 
> capacity to function at that level went bye bye about 5 years ago.
> 
> I find myself wanting to start a separate 'conversation' just for 
> people like me -- single, approaching the Third Age (50+) but 
> still 
> kicking, with little or no family who would like to create 
> something 
> were we all could age in place. We wouldn't be ready for 
> ElderShire 
> yet.
> 
> Since it's likely we'd be located over a large geographical range, 
> I 
> thought it might be good to have an online place to talk about 
> what 
> we are thinking about, what we want, and perhaps how we can create 
> it 
> in our own locations. Or where we can find it if some of us move 
> to 
> one geographic location.
> 
> Hope this all makes sense. Originally I was disappointed with the 
> cohousing experience because the definition of 'affordable' wasn't 
> affordable for me. I don't plan on going into debt with a mortgage 
> and wouldn't qualify for one anyway due to my limited income. I 
> could 
> afford to build something smaller than 1,000 square feet - pay for 
> it 
> outright.
> 
> I'm open to suggestions about how those of us who fit this 
> demographic (or close to it) can connect to figure out how to 
> modify 
> the standard cohousing model to meet the needs of the 50+ boomers 
> without kids. Or maybe I'm missing another way of looking at what 
> I'd 
> like to create for myself as I get older.
> 
> Cheers!
> Marganne
> Sacramento, CA
> (where it's too hot in the summer!)
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
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> End of Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 41, Issue 34
> *******************************************
>