PUTNEY — Life in a village. Who would have thought of it a year ago when we'd lived more than 40 years in our Washington, D.C. suburb?
I was sitting in a big rocking chair at the Front Porch Café. It was October 2007, and my husband, Richard Brady, and I were listening to Anne Fines and Joan Benneyan describe Putney Commons, the only cohousing community in Windham County.
We were familiar with this new development in American community making and were eager to hear how the Putney version of it developed and to get to know who these people were. Our daughter lived nearby, and we were of an age to be thinking about life changes and new directions.
A few weeks before, adding flavor to our forthcoming visit with our daughter, Richard put “cohousing” and “Vermont” into Google. Out came Putney Commons, a small adventure in intentional neighborhood and ecological community right in the heart of Putney.
Here it is a year later. Richard and I now live in a small home that we helped to design, and we've entered into community life. Recently we hosted a couple from our old haunts, Washington, D.C., who wondered if Putney Commons was for them.
Work proceeds on five other small, ecologically designed houses. Houses are nearing completion - some inhabited by owners ready to live on the land now, others rented or available for rent by owners thinking ahead. When they do move in, they'll already know their neighbors and have years of shared experiences together.
Rick Derrig and his able workers are here daily, completing excavation for drainage, building a stream bed with pieces of granite, and taking topsoil from a mountainous pile to replace the front yards of units already completed.
We're definitely living in a construction zone, but the signs are there that one day we'll be a small, six-unit community on the land. With a vision of community for all ages, Putney Commons is now embarking on a journey toward sustainable living as a small community, a total of nine small (approximately 1,300-sq.-ft.) homes.
Having come from a very different climate, we are thrilled by the intense colors of this fall, by the joy of being on an adventure in life that brings us closer to deeply held values about the earth, and by sharing that adventure with new friends who also want to be good stewards of the earth.
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The first meeting of the group that became Putney Commons took place in 2003 among Anne Fines, Claire Wilson, Libby Mills, and Gibb Taylor, who identified the criteria for the community and its location.
“We hoped,” said Fines, “to establish a community in the center of Putney, which would allow older residents to continue living in their homes, supported by village services and each other.
“We were looking for a site in the center of Putney village,” she said. “Since there was little available land anywhere in Putney, our dream seemed rather a fragile affair.”
Two years later, a site, with the requisite privacy and southern exposure and near village services, was purchased from HildaMarie Hendricks on Sept. 27, 2005. The site includes a peaceful south facing meadow surrounded by woods with trails leading to Sacketts Brook. It's easy to access from Main Street but away from the road itself.
In March 2006 there was an informational meeting at the Putney Public Library to present the project formally to the public and to solicit suggestions and participants.
In the first two years after the land was found, more than 50 people expressed interest in the project, attending meetings or joining in other activities. On Feb. 22, 2007, the four founding members committed to begin building.
Greenberg Associates designed the small homes, built by Michael Wells with structurally insulated panels and triple-pane glass to be very energy efficient. The homes sit in clusters of three on a single pad, thus reducing cost and resulting in a single roof line.
Despite proximity, homes feel private yet linked. Efficiency Vermont has awarded the project a five-star rating. Roof orientation makes possible the addition in the future of solar panels.
Over time the Putney Commons project settled into six regulars who met several times a month and made decisions by consensus.
“I bought land cooperatively with six couples in 1979 in Dummerston Center,” Cheryl Wilfong says. “ That took two years of meeting every week. We built our homes, children were born, and we began to go camping at a state park with each other every summer.”
There have been births, deaths, divorces, she says. And, “yes, there have been arguments and fallings out. But then there is coming together again. Call me a forerunner of the Age of Aquarius, but I am deeply rooted in my community. When I heard about Putney Commons, I knew I had to participate in it.
“Yes, we meet frequently, and, yes, there is the sometimes long and slow decision-making process, but sometimes we're on a wavelength and it's easier to make decisions with the group than with my spouse!” Wilfong says.
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Sustainability and community require both long-term thinking and a dedication to something larger than our narrowly defined selves. Both are at the heart of Putney Commons, though now its description and, except for Fines, all of its original participants have changed.
Small felt right because small scale allows for learning and practicing the skills of cooperation, conflict transformation, and ecological awareness.
When we began to attend business meetings as interested potential participants in the community, we found decisions being made by consensus, a process consistent with our backgrounds - mine in Quaker Meeting, Richard's in Quaker education.
When the community made the decision last summer to blast some ledge that was blocking the path of a sewer pipe, we saw the community respond with its wide range of skills and talents during the few days we had to prepare neighbors.
Anne Fines went to work at once on the phone, calling people to let them know what to expect. Elizabeth Christie asked for a blessing for the earth being disrupted. Cheryl Wilfong came down a few days later with a small Thai spirit house. Elizabeth and I put this beautiful, handcrafted item into a tree not expected to come down; the spirit house is designed to hold the spirits disrupted in this land.
Since the very beginning of breaking ground, the land has been honored. In June 2007, during a special blessing ceremony, we invited the Spirit of the Land to offer its continued guidance.
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What is co-housing and what makes it different from other kinds of development?
This exciting housing movement came originally from Denmark in the 1980s via two American architects. It has taken root here in the United States.
Cohousing begins with people choosing one another as future neighbors. As numerous decisions are worked through about where to live and what to build, how to engage the land, and by what process to make decisions, the neighborhood begins to grow in solidity and clarity.
Some who begin the process find they've changed, and they move away. A number of factors can move people away as this building of future neighborhood happens. It can be the timing or finances or even the need for a wood stove. Putney Commons owners decided to use other forms of heat, wanting to keep the air as clean as possible.
The truth is, meeting with your future neighbors is not what everyone wants to do, and one participant opted out after beginning to build, realizing that meetings were not her cup of tea. Her stepping out helped Richard and me step in and move from interested onlookers to active participants.
Our purpose as a community is to live together in independent units, yet with a common care for the earth and one another, and to learn, practice, and share the art of living sustainably and joyfully, in ways that replenish ourselves, our village, the natural world, and beyond.
This way of living is just one response to the ecological issues of our times. I imagine continued conversations on how to reduce carbon footprints, choices that Putney Commons inhabitants, or Commoners, as we've come to be known, are making about use of energy, how to strengthen community ties, or reduce stuff in our homes, making space for more homegrown fun.
These commonly held decisions are documented in a journal that the group calls “The Book of Commons.”
Eventually, the group decided not to build second stories, to check with others about adding changes like birdfeeders or placement of garden additions. The community was wanting communication as it evolved, both in the context of individual needs and community development.
Agreements about how to resolve conflicts can be found in The Book of Commons, as are agreements about renters, care of animals, and disposal of waste.
While The Book of Commons reflects the thinking of the current six members of Putney Commons, we build upon the work done by other cohousing communities around this country.
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At a recent meeting, Joan Benneyan, treasurer of the Putney Commons Home Owners Association, circulated a list of recycling centers that accommodate a wide variety of items. We all learned, for instance, that manilla envelopes, because of their dye, can't be recycled.
“I really like the idea of living in this small community where folks, although from varied backgrounds and having completely different life experiences, share a common belief in being both good neighbors and responsible stewards of the land,” she says.
And for Benneyan, the collaboration and communication is worth it.
“I enjoy the process of working out solutions together,” she says. “It takes patience, but I always feel I've learned something about myself or others along the way.”