A friend told me it's been close to a year since my last update on the Little Mountain Cohousing project, sent via barely-coherent email a handful of hours past my bed time.
The email back in February 2016 read: "We are now going full-steam ahead." Which, when it comes to working with the city and developing land, is still swimming through molasses.
Since land acquisition, we've had many design meetings with the architects to discuss Vancouver architecture style and cohousing philosophy—check out the renderings!—and are in the process of getting our land rezoned and our design approved. This will take approximately another year. Then construction begins, and that will take about a year and a half.
We also had an inaugural communal dinner back in April. A cooking committee cooked and everyone came to eat and drink. The kids played together. A sign of the children's community coming together: they were learning each others' names. R spoke about playing together again.
On our consensus decision making front, we are learning all about sociocracy, a style of discussion that emphasizes equal air-time for everyone in the room. So far we've used it for defining our Vision & Values Statement as well as our Living in Community policy series.
We're currently trying to decide what kind of kitchen cabinets and appliances we want as a group. Flooring and kitchen counters decisions are just beginning too.
It feels very near and yet also very far away. We love our current neighbourhood and we're going to miss it, but we'll also be very glad when we move in.
