(birds chirping) - [Miriam] I think our friends were kind of weirded out at first.

I think some of our friends were; I think they were like, "Do you know what "you're getting into?"

My siblings repeatedly asked me if I was joining a cult.

If I knew what I was doing.

Asked me if I was drinking the Kool-aid and I said, "Well, I'm drinking the Kool-aid "a little bit, but it's not what you think "it is, you know."

But, I think now that we're moved and our friends have seen what it actually is and that it's not a commune; I think that it's, "Oh, we get it now."

But when I finally bought the unit, I was really excited to have my siblings over and my little nephew because I was like, "They're going to fall in love "with this place."

I mean, how could you not?

And they were like, "This is actually really cool."

They didn't apologize for accusing me of joining a cult, but they were like, "Okay, we're not worried about "you anymore."

- [Ken] Cohousing in America started when a couple architects from California visited Denmark and they came across the concept there of people living in these kind of small villages.

The term that they had for them, they sort of tried to translate and they came up with cohousing.

They brought that to America.

Cohousing is a form of intentional community.

Usually, everybody has their own unit and it can be a unit, a single family house, townhouse, apartment, but everybody has their own function unit.

But, they also have shared common space and with the intention that they are going to interact socially; more so than say a condominium association where just everybody lives in their own units and kind of stays in their own units.

They meet to make decisions on say, landscaping or what color the building should be painted.

With cohousing, we're involved; we're self-managed.

We intentionally get to know our neighbors and interact.

So, we have community meals.

We have them twice a week, other communities sometimes have more than that.

But, that's one of the ideas; there are community meals, parties, gatherings and so people regularly interact.

This is my daughter, Dana.

How old were you?

You would have been?

About six.

You were six years old.

I was six.

When we moved in here, so you had a good chunk of your life was lived here at Monterey Cohousing.

- [Dana] Yeah, I practically grew up here.

Since my parents were separated from a young age, I had kind of two neighborhoods, but then it felt like I was a little bit closer to my neighbors here than when I went to another house and I had the different sort of neighbors, sort of.

Although, it was more like I was just with my mom and that family kind of in a house or an apartment.

Whereas here, you know, it's kind of like family, so to speak.

- [Louis] I was looking for sort of an alternative living situation.

I looked at rooms for rent.

I remember looking at one studio apartment and there were lots of locks on the door and I just remember feeling like I think I'd be like really socially isolated and really unhappy here.

Even though, like it was in a relatively populated area.

Eventually, and I don't remember the exact time, but I found Monterey Cohousing and it looked really intriguing and I read everything on their website and I thought their mission sounded really cool.

It reminded me of my time in AmeriCorps.

Like an intentional community.

When I was in AmeriCorps, we all had a common goal.

We were building homes or we were serving meals; we were working together and while this doesn't have that same like objective, people in cohousing are committed to living together and sharing the work and sharing meals and committed to being a community in like a really deliberate way.

That kind of resonates with me.

- [Miriam] While there can be a lot of conflict, I think everyone has found a way to coexist with each other and find ways to be neighborly and take care of each other and I think so many people here are just willing to help and jump in and that's not something that I have found other places.

I know even little things like, "Hey, we've got all this "stuff to take to Goodwill, "can anybody help?"

And a couple people jump in a say, "Hey, I'll "help tomorrow.

No Problem."

Even recently, our daughter, her open house night got moved for school and all of our babysitters canceled and we were sort of in a pickle and one of our neighbors actually ended up watching Elvidia and it was really like, "No problem.

We can watch her."

So, I came home and they were playing with K'nex on the floor and you know, so, it's nice.

It feels like everybody sort of has each other's backs and I think too many hands make light work, so having people around who are willing and happy to help and take that benefit away of that ownership of the community is really awesome.

- [Ken] I think it's because there is a feeling of alienation from neighbors that people could live in suburban or even urban enclaves where they would drive into their garage, close the garage door, live their lives, drive out; they would never get to know their neighbors.

A lot of people who lived here said that they had lived for years; 10, 20 years in a neighborhood and they didn't know the person two doors down.

So, I think people miss that.

People, I think, miss the feeling of living in something like a village, you know.

Which is, I think, what we're trying replicate here is something like a village.