Charlie and I met 30 years ago. We fell in love fast (at first sight at a Madison Wisconsin coop house party). Within a few weeks we were already spring break vacationing together in Florida, and during one of our many long walks on the beach, we shared our goals for the kind of lives we wanted to live in that far off world called adulthood. We agreed that living isolated lives in a single family home was not what we wanted for ourselves or for the world. We wanted the sharing, friendship, culinary pleasures, and yes, even the challenges, of group housing as we had each experienced in college and graduate school. We envisioned having our own home in a village-like community where neighbors would share resources, help each other and create strong bonds. Did we even know back then that there was such a thing as cohousing? The cohousing movement started in Denmark in the 1960’s, but Charlie and I felt we had thought up a new form of Utopian housing.

Every year around this time we have a community retreat. It is a time for all of us to reconnect. To get to know each other on a deeper level. Sometimes the retreat is facilitated with outside help and sometimes from members of the community.

The first night, Friday night, we have a potluck, a ceremony of some kind,and then we watch the Heartwood movie. The movie is made by gathering all the photos and movies that people have taken of life at Heartwood or individual accomplishments for the year and these are put to music by two of our teenage girls. They have been doing this now for several years. It is a fun way for them to contribute and the product is always amazing and something we can look back on in 10 years and see how we have changed and grown.

There is currently a thread on Cohousing-L about smoking policies in cohousing communities — what are yours and how do they work? The policies range from quite restrictive on the basis of protecting public health and encouraging healthy lifestyles to simply prohibiting smoking in the common areas but allowing it outside as long as no one present objects. Some specifically define smoking.

Part of the question is whether it should be banned in private homes.

I can't imagine that any community would try to ban anything in homes as long as it doesn't invade or cause a clear danger to other homes, for example offensive odors, noise, poisonous snakes, or storage of flammable materials.

Hi, I want to introduce myself. My name is Sandy and I live in Heartwood Cohousing. www.heartwoodcohousing.com and www.heartwoodfarmscoop.com. Our community is about 11 years old and is located in Southwest Colorado. I have volunteered to write a monthly blog where I will try to give you an up close and personal look at life in CoHousing.

This is a beautiful time of year here in Southwest Colorado. The fall colors have gone on and on this year. The smell of snow is in the air and things are starting to change over to a whole new season. We have put the farm to bed and sent our wonderful farm interns on their way to new adventures. Community meals have more soups than salads now, and life seems a little less hectic.