Home&Real Estate
OPEN HOME GUIDE 58
Also online at PaloAltoOnline.com
Renderings, above and below, give a good idea of what the project at 445 Calderon Ave. in Mountain View will look like when it’s completed in 2013.
Cohousing community taking shape in Mountain View
THRIVING ORCHIDS ... Mark Pendleton, managing grower at Brookside Nursery in Menlo Park, will teach “The Basics of Home Orchid Care” on Saturday, Oct. 15, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Filoli, 86 Cañada Road, Woodside. He will show how to use a repotting kit — with a new pot, stakes and bark. Bring an orchid to repot. Fee, which includes a repotting kit, is $65 for nonmembers, $50 for members. Information: 650-364-8300 or www. filoli.org
HEADS UP FOR HOLIDAYS ... The 14th annual “Holidays on a High Note” fundraiser will be held Monday, Oct. 17, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Menlo Circus Club, 190 Park Lane, Atherton. The event, which includes 25 tables set by local interior and landscape designers, lunch and a silent auction, is a fundraiser for the Foothill Auxiliary to Peninsula Family Service. Tickets are $100. Information (and tickets): eileen8436@yahoo.com (include Holidays on a High Note in subject line) DAFFODILS, TULIPS AND MORE ... Marde Ross, a distributor and importer of flowering bulbs in Glen Ellen, will teach the “What, Where, Why, How, and When to Plant Daffodils, Tulips, and Peonies” on Wednesday, Oct. 19, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Gamble Garden Carriage House, 1431 Waverley St., Palo Alto. Ross will illustrate her talk (continued on page 54)
by Jeff Carr esigning one’s dream home is a lengthy process when 13 families have to agree on everything. So how does the Mountain View Cohousing Community expedite the process? Find six more. Nineteen households are needed to occupy 19 condo apartments in the innovative new community on Calderon Avenue, the first of its kind on the Midpeninsula. Even while the group seeks its final few members, though, the project recently crossed a major threshold that may have the concrete pouring sooner than later. After the members received the pass from their development review committee, zoning administrator Peter Gilli officially gave his endorsement on Aug. 24. The Mountain View City Council then gave its approval on Sept. 27, according to Susan Burwen. The next six months will see the residents bid for a general contractor, seek construction financing and obtain the necessary permits. They hope to accomplish those steps within six months in order to begin construction in spring 2012. Burwen said she and the other residents hope to occupy their new homes by fall 2013, a full decade after the idea was conceived.
Veronica Weber
D Rendering courtesy of Mountain View Cohousing
MENLO PARK SIDEWALK FAIR ... The 15th annual Menlo Park Sidewalk Fine Arts and Crafts Fall Fest takes place Friday, Oct. 14 through Sunday, Oct. 16, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., along Santa Cruz Avenue, off El Camino Real. More than 90 artists and craftspeople will display original works, including artwork, jewelry, handcrafted soap, children’s clothing, photography and toys. Information: the Menlo Park Chamber of Commerce at 650-325-2818 or Pacific Fine Arts at 209-267-4394 or www.pacificfinearts.com
Residents hope to occupy new homes by fall 2013
Courtesy of Mountain View Cohousing
SAVE SEEDS, PLAN GARDEN ... Carol Cox, who managed the research garden at Ecology Action in Willits for nearly 20 years, will teach a pair of classes on Saturday, Oct. 15, at Common Ground Education Center, 559 College Ave., Palo Alto. “How to Save Your Own Seeds,” from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., deals with basic principles; students are asked to bring “How to Grow More Vegetables,” 7th edition. From 2 to 4 p.m. Cox will deal with “Planning Your Garden with Master Charts,” dealing with how to calculate the amount of seed needed for space available, number of flats needed, when to sow and when to transplant. Each class costs $31. Information: 650-493-6072 or www. commongroundinpaloalto.org
Rendering courtesy of Mountain View Cohousing
Home Front
Above left: Susan Burwen, left, and Denise Pitsch of the Mountain View Cohousing Community stand in the lot where 19 condos will be built. Above right: More than 100 people attended an event on July 24, 2011, aimed at introducing the project to the neighborhood.
In 2003, Burwen and her husband David began discussing the desire to live near friends — a conversation that took on new purpose once they learned about cohousing. Somewhere between a retirement community and a traditional block of single-family homes, cohousing is not particularly new or radical. Burwen called the Mountain View project a “new old-fashioned neighborhood,” meant simply for people who wish to engage with their neighbors and reduce their resource consumption. Freedom runs high in cohousing developments because the residents and the owners are one and the same. That means those who buy into such projects have complete autonomy to design their own floor plans, amenities, common spaces, even laws and policies — as long as everyone agrees. Like most cohousing communities, units in the Mountain View project will be completely independent and private, with full kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms and the works. Residents will have access to common areas, such as a fitness center, media room and gardens, and may participate in communal meals at certain times, but only if they choose to. (continued on page 51)
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