Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: The Bid for Belonging Auction is Live!

[Raines Cohen (rc3-coho-L]

On Mon, Oct 20, 2025 at 8:11 AM Trish Becker-Hafnor via Cohousing-L <
cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

> The Bid for Belonging auction is officially open! It’s packed with amazing
> ways to connect, give back, and have some fun.
>

Trish,

Thanks so much for you and the team putting this together. I've enjoyed and
found great deals and opportunities through the in-person auctions at the
national cohousing conferences over the past three decades, and this makes
it even easier, bringing the bidding right to my desk/phone/dinner table.

My cohousing neighbor spread the word on our community's in-house email
list, and this might be a helpful reminder to others in the cohousing-L
community to do the same, as many of your neighbors and fellow co-founders
and community seekers might not be here or might have missed the message
due to inbox overwhelm, spam filters, Amazon DNS outages, government
shutdowns, etc. The clock is ticking!

I'm also posting here because, fellow Cohousing-L folk, I need you to
outbid me on some items. Some were just so exciting and such a good deal
that I couldn't resist, but now I can't afford to win them all, AND I want
to make sure they go to good homes where people will appreciate and get
good value from them.

I've already been outbid on a couple within an hour of bidding, but some of
the others that I think are incredible opportunities include (most of these
are still at the super-low "starting bid" level so it wouldn't take much to
outbid me):

 * Three Days at Heartwood Cohousing in Durango, CO: This lovely rural
community is now expanding. It is within a day's drive of all the other
Colorado communities, as well as the ones in Santa Fe and Salt Lake, plus
perhaps the other Heartwood in Tulsa. For the SF Bay Area and
Sacramento-Sierra Foothills cohousing neighborhoods, it's just an overnight
train ride to Grand Junction plus a very scenic drive to kick off or end
your trip in the region. If you've only seen the East side of the Rockies
and perhaps the western ski slopes, you are missing out on this incredible
corner of the state and all it has to offer.

* 1-2 night stay at the long-established intergenerational Oak Creek
Commons in Paso Robles, CA (not to be confused with the newer seniors-only
Oakcreek in Stillwater, OK): perfect spot for a break when driving from SF
to LA or back. Very nice pool! Lovely woods to walk in. My current bid is
just $50, a fraction of what you would spend on a hotel around there.

* 2 nights at Adams Creek Cohousing in Hood River, OR: I got to visit this
lovely community before it started construction, and then again after
move-in within the last year. Incredible spot on the Columbia River, an
easy drive for cohousers around PDX or Bend or even the Seattle area. Many
great parks nearby. And one of the country's top views from a cohousing
Common House.

* Weekend Stay at Hearthstone in Denver: The first new-build community in
the city limits, great for biking all around the canal trails on the
regional bike-share e-bikes! Would you believe that unless someone outbids
me, I'll be there for just $50? You can snap it up, although if your bid
isn't too high I might try to outbid you because I'm always passing through
Denver for conferences and fun activities in the region.

* Ask me Anything with Karen Gimnig: 90 minutes with a premiere process
professional on Zoom, to help a community thrive? For $75? Pinch me. But
also outbid me.

* Four hours of consulting with cohousing architect Bryan Bowen: If you
don't consider $200 a ridiculously low price for this kind of service, you
haven't been architect-shopping lately.

* Likewise 10 hours of consulting and design collaboration with
architect Adam Buehler. My bid is just $10 per hour. It would take longer
than that to design the safe to store all the money you'll save if you snap
up this deal.

So what are you bidding on? Remember, less than two weeks remain. Creating
an account took about 10 seconds. I need you to outbid me on these, for the
sake of my credit card.

Raines, living in community at Berkeley (CA) Cohousing