If you'd told me in 2016, while I was building my Tiny House, that in 2020 I'd have put down my life savings on a deposit for a home in a town I'd only been to twice, that was projected to cost more money than I'd earned in my entire life, I'd have laughed, then asked you what you were smoking. What changed? For starters, Tiny living didn't quite pan out how I'd imagined. More importantly, I discovered cohousing.
One of the attractive aspects of Bridgewater will be being able to use my bike as a means of transportation. There are bike trails in town which link many important residential, recreational, and business areas and provide cycling routes to other communities. Many, if not all of our community members are dedicated cyclists.
My mind was buzzing with possibilities as I walked home from the info session. I was playing out my daily routine in my house and comparing it to life at Treehouse Village. It was clear we could do a lot more with less. The move would involve downsizing to a home with considerably less square footage but grant us more shared space, amenities, and community support than we could ever access on our own. I wondered: what might I be able to share and achieve in an intentional community where my neighbours are also committed to lightening their ecological footprint?
While we all are isolating at home, the pandemic hasn’t stopped Treehouse Villagers from strengthening our community. When Cate emailed with the invitation to take on the colour challenge, I was thrilled to see her family’s pink pose, but reluctant to join in. It was only after the “reply alls” filled my inbox from members stepping up to the challenge that I was nudged to play along.
“I’ve found a cohousing project on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. It looks interesting and they have an information session on YouTube. Do you want to listen to it while we drive?”
In late February, Erin McQueen, sister to Treehouse Village Ecohousing member Caitlin Stonham, joined her family on a weekend in Bridgewater while they attended Treehouse Village meetings. Here, Erin shares some of the highlights of the town, from a visitor’s perspective.
Last Friday, rather than having fun with just the adults at Treehouse Village, we decided to try and have some online fun that involved some of our community kids. Our event planning team put on their thinking caps and came up with a community craft night, where we would all sit together over video conferencing...
Not only have our members found that working on our development is an excellent distraction from the boredom of social isolation, we’ve also been able to draw emotional support from each other in these trying times. But how exactly have we been able to keep the “social” in “social distancing”? Our success rests on the strong foundation that we’ve built together over the past year or more.
I try to remind myself that, despite being uncommon in our individualistic society, tight-knit, supportive, collaborative neighbourhoods are the norm in many other places around the world. We may not have a neighbourhood yet, but we’re already neighbours.
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...
