Our Blog
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Why does cohousing make sense for our families?
Treehouse Village parents weigh in When I decided to write a blog post to share my family’s thought process on moving to a cohousing community, I thought it would be interesting to hear from other families who are part of this project. I asked some TVE members with kids, “What was the clincher for you
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Finding our village: Why cohousing is right for our family
As we watched, my husband Dan and I looked at each other. We were both thinking something along these lines: This is genius! Why doesn’t everyone live like this? Could we do this?
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A Newcomer’s Guide to Treehouse Meetings
Meetings are run a bit differently here. You’ll find some impressive things (like a group being completely civilized and focused on reaching an agreement quickly) and other things that make you wonder what’s going on (like the process of checking in at the beginning and out at the end). Here’s a quick overview of what to expect and why we run our meetings this way.
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First 3D Rendering
✓ Design workshop series completed. We are now in the Design Development stage, where those designs will be refined and costed. ✓ Early 3D rendering of the design received (see above). ✓ Project Manager hired. ✓ Geotechnical survey completed. ✓ Town of Bridgewater held a Public Participation Meeting as part of our Development Agreement process.
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Workshop #4 and Approval of Schematic Design
On December 7-8 we did our final design workshop. At the workshop we approved the schematic design, the architects will shift into the design development phase, where we will refine the plans add more detail. Construction drawings will follow and we’ll be building before you know it! Treehouse Village is already a hive of activity.
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Design Development – Here we come!
This weekend we held the fourth and final design workshop with our architects. They presented us with a set of schematic drawings for our village including: Site Layout Common House Private Units As a community we consented to the schematic design for the Village. This design aligns with our vision and our values. Next we
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We have land!
We’re so happy to share that we have secured the land for our future community. It’s an incredible 15 acre parcel of forested land including many old growth trees, bordered by the Centennial Trail (a multi-use active transportation trail) and centrally located in town. The land has an excellent walkability score and is zoned “comprehensive
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Design Workshop #3 – Private Homes
The weekend began with a great reveal of the initial design of our common house based upon the input provided at the previous design workshop. In this workshop, we spent the weekend talking through the various features of our private homes.
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Design Workshop #2
Our Sept 14-15 workshop was all about designing the common house. In cohousing, the common house is the heart of the community, and an extension of each family’s home. It is a place where you can practice your hobbies, share food and fun, and be yourself around trusted neighbours.
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First Workshop Success!
We had so much fun letting our creative juices flow at our first Design Workshop! On day #1 we spent time envisioning and prioritizing the kinds of elements we want to include on the site… woodworking shop, gardens, children’s play spaces, and so on. We then took our ideas and walked the site, imagining what