We’ve grown to a community of 24 adults and three children, representing 19 households.  Two are designated as rental units and will be owned by community members.

Meet Daybreak Cohousing!

Terri
For many years I have been seeking community as part of my spiritual practice, which centers around my yogic lifestyle and Buddhism. Once I realized I wanted to live among others who were committed to sharing and growing together ALL THE TIME, I have never looked back. Creating a cohousing community has been my passion and the center of my life for almost 3 years now. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I have been challenged to learn, change and grow far beyond what I thought possible and know that community will continue to bring these challenges with the great joys. The community of people that we have become now and continue to become, even though we don’t live at the same address yet, is the most amazing part of the journey for me. I am grateful to the whole community for its willingness to walk this path together, particularly to Dave.

I appreciate working together as a community now and the challenges it presents me to grow. I look forward to hanging out on the common house terrace with community members while others are cooking the evening meal for us to share.

Teams: Development, Steering, Membership and Legal

Dave
I aspire to follow a Buddhist path in my life.  My practice is the time I find most meaningful and beneficial. I wish to help those in need with whatever gifts I have. I find my work with adults with developmental disabilities very rewarding. The surprise in this work is my need to develop up-to-now unneeded parenting skills, particularly patience! 

As with my Buddhist practice, I believe living in community will challenge me to be the best I can be. I hope to find many social opportunities in cohousing and wish to share what I can to support the community.

The hobby I have held onto throughout my life stages is whitewater rafting. I also enjoy hiking and bicycling.

In 2002, I set aside normal life for 18 months and traveled around the world studying Buddhism, meeting wonderful and interesting people and waiting for inspiration on a new direction in my life.  My prior career was as a contract computer programmer. The perks were fine, but the work was unfulfilling. Working with a machine simply was not for me.

I graduated from Washington State University in 1983. I was born in Puyallup, Washington, in 1958.

I appreciate how everyone has offered their time and talents to make our dream a reality. The Community’s commitment and effort is a precious gift. I look forward to learning together and supporting each other as we go, working together and having some fun!

Teams: Finance, Sustainability and Website

Kristin
I came to cohousing through a theoretical study. I first learned of it while in architecture school. It was during a time when my younger sister, who has Down Syndrome, was looking to move out of my mother's home. The options for people with developmental disabilities tend to be fairly limited and usually pretty isolating. I saw cohousing as a great opportunity to integrate people with developmental disabilities into a social and supportive setting. So, for my thesis, I designed a cohousing community that could integrate people with developmental disabilities. Through this process, I researched, surveyed, and visited a number of communities and got interested in living in one myself. I eventually dragged Richard to a community potluck at Milagro Cohousing in Tucson, Arizona, where we were living. He then became interested, too, after seeing it for himself.

So when we moved to Portland, we began looking for a cohousing community.

One of our main reasons for moving to Portland was because we wanted an urban setting that was pedestrian, bicycle, and transit friendly. We had cut back to having one vehicle while in Tucson and did not want to change that. So we looked for a community that was close in and no such communities existed at the time. Shortly thereafter, we found Terri and Dave through their original Sunrise website and attended an outreach meeting in August 2005. We found a great connection and since then, we have come fully onboard and moved forward at full speed.

My current career is in architecture. I am in the process of getting licensed and am exploring alternative career paths. I'm exploring ways I can make a bigger impact in the world. Right now, and for the last five years, I have been working in low-income housing and initially was also doing community planning, which I loved and do miss. Cohousing has opened my eyes to many other opportunities. I am now seeking training as a facilitator and exploring alternatives to traditional architecture.

I appreciate all the love, support and energy that the group offers and shares. I appreciate all the personal growth we have experienced since we've come together. I look forward to living in community every day, to the shared meals, conversation and relaxation that comes with a true comfort with those that surround me. I am grateful for every one of our members and perspective members. And I look forward to meeting our future members. We are creating an amazing family of people.

Teams: Development, Gardening and FFE

Rich
I'm often seen lurking around in dark and damp corners...well okay only when I clean the bathroom and kitchen. I like to keep things light in life–it's too short to be so serious all the time. If you have to do hard work, at least have fun doing it. Often I find that it makes work go faster. By trade, I manage computer networks nationwide for a growing IT company based in Portland. It seems boring to a lot of people.  I think it's all the acronyms that people have a hard time getting past.  I am also the community caretaker of our mascot, the Daybreak Badger. Funny how people change over time. I've come to love community for not only the food, but the warm feelings of welcome that close friendships and neighborliness provide.  That says a lot coming from a guy who wanted to live in a castle with a moat (to keep the neighbors away, of course).

I appreciate foods and how nice it is to be eating. And I look forward to exploring a diversity of foods.

Teams: Development

Tiffany
I was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon.  Guess that makes me one of the web-footed natives! Most of my family are all around this state but I spent most of my adult life, until recently, in Washington state. I had the pleasure of working on many exciting and valuable environmental projects in my job as well as my neighborhood. I also started a restaurant in Pike Place Market and worked on community-based art events.  I had my own home in Seattle and a community of friends.

But my friend of many, many years, Alex, lived in Portland and when he asked me to marry him, I came back to Oregon to begin our lives together.  Alex introduced me to cohousing and we started meeting people who were organizing projects, including the folks of Daybreak. We liked their ambition, the organization we saw in the planning they had done,,and the style  of the project. So now we are fully engaged in making Daybreak a reality. Meals together and work parties (whew–as a former owner of a single-family home, I sure see the value in that). Sharing tools and books and time together…

I appreciate the grace and humor of the Daybreak members--it is a lot of work to build a community and a structure, yet it is really good too. I look forward to having good friends to share work, ideas, food and friendship with and I think it will be a great place to raise a family.

Teams: Membership and Sustainability

Alex
Masquerading as a mild-mannered bibliophile, Alex really wanted to be soaring around the earth at super speeds in his space capsule (when he was five).  Originally from Chicago, he left for schools  ranging from Reed to St. John's and eventually settled on Portland  as his residence of choice. 

When asked about his experience at St. John's, Alex replied, "it was the finest educational experience  anywhere."  His love of the classics and humanities led him to  graduate work and to teaching these subjects. Not to be hampered by traditional academics, Alex has also taught swing dance and fondly remembers a weekend in high school dedicated to playing  games with a group of friends.

"A sense of wonder" describes his attitude toward life and one that  he hopes to foster in his students. If offered the chance to have a "super power", he  would opt for the ability to know what anyone, anywhere was thinking.

His ideal day is to wake up naturally while it's still dark out, watching the sun rise while sitting on the couch with a cup good of coffee, and enjoying the rest of the day, with some alone time and some time with others.

What makes Daybreak appealing to Alex is that it affords him an "opportunity to make a difference where my limitations or hesitations would stop me if I only had myself." He confesses to a weakness for spending money on books and he really likes smart dogs.

I appreciate being known, and the interest and goodwill which my emerging dreams find in our wonderful group. I look forward to acting with a few others or many others, to forward a purpose or goal that inspires us; to living actively as more than an individual;to seeing the difference we make together; and to living among people who are daring every day to reach further, as we also create restful homes and a joyful community.

Teams: Steering, Vision, Finance, Sustainability and Welcoming

Martha
One of several Daybreakers with Midwestern roots, I grew up in a leafy green suburb of Chicago where all the children were above average, we skated on the frozen playing field outside the neighborhood school in winter and went off to summer camp in Wisconsin.

My horizons broadened after  leaving home. I got a journalism degree at the University of Illinois and headed to Connecticut for my first job, as a reporter on a daily newspaper. A short while later I married a Brit, also a journalist, and moved to London, and a few years after that we emigrated to New Zealand.

By the mid-seventies, I was back in the U.S. and living in laid-back Eugene, Oregon. I became a freelance writer specializing in food and health. I wrote and published a tofu cookbook and wrote for a number of newspapers and magazines, including a food column for New Age Journal (taking over from a writer named Crescent Dragonwagon!). After about 10 years, I was ready for something different and moved to Portland.

Twenty years later I am still in Portland and cohousing is my current and next adventure. I have an editing job that’s a good fit for my skills and values, and I enjoy the many opportunities that city life provides. I’ve sung with Aurora Chorus and have been hooked on partner dancing since my very first swing class many years ago. I love yoga, walking, farmers markets, world music, travel, learning about other cultures, and moonlight. I’m a joiner, having helped with the startup of a Unitarian congregation and several professional groups, and  sometimes I take the lead, as I did in organizing a volunteer project to benefit Mercy Corps’ post-9/11 work.

My family is spread out across the country, except for a niece who starts college in Portland in fall 2007. I am excited about living in a community that feels like extended family and that is committed to building a project and living day to day with sustainability in mind.

I enjoy seeing how the group dynamics shift and become richer as new members and prospective members join in Daybreak's "community life." I look forward to warm summer evenings on our terrace, lingering in conversation as darkness falls. I look forward to music events in the common house and singing with others on cooking duty while in the midst of meal prep.

Teams: Vision and FFE

Ben, Elissa & Grace
We are Ben Pierce, and Elissa and Gracella Mendenhall. Two of us hail from Omaha Nebraska, and one of us was born right here in Portland, last year, in fact. Ben is a director at the Community Cycling Center, a nonprofit dedicated to getting low-income kids on bicycles. He also has a love for numbers, math, finance, the mountains, sweets, and being at home with the “ladies.”

Ben’s life in a snapshot:

• 1st-12th grades in Omaha with my future sweetie
• 13-16th grades in Peoria, Illinois
• A year in the southern Rockies
• Five years in Washington, D.C.
• Six months in Paris
• Reconnected with my sweetie in Portland four years ago
• Had a baby with her a year ago
• Love is the word of my life
• I'm the administrator at the Community Cycling Center

Elissa is a part-time stay-at-home mom, dabbles in freelance writing, and has recently reopened her naturopathic practice part time in Sellwood. She has a degree in biology from New College in Sarasota, Florida, and a doctorate of naturopathy from the National College of Natural Medicine here in Portland. She has also lived in Northampton, Massachusetts, and at Acorn, an intentional community in rural Virginia. She enjoys singing in her Balkan women’s choir, Svila, dance and movement arts, her cockatiel, four chickens, and a large garden. She also enjoys being a mother more than she expected.

Gracella was born May 21, 2006, and currently enjoys any kind of animal, showing her brilliance with refrigerator magnets, and making us laugh regularly.

We are so ready for community living! We long to be part of an intentional neighborhood with more camaraderie and sharing than our current location. Being people who put great effort into living our values, we also want to live our lives as good examples. We want to consume less, dream and play more, live consciously and leave little ecological footprint. Most of all, we hope for a great place to raise our daughter, full of love and a variety of experiences for her as she grows up.

Co Ho Us In G

(The "G" of course represents the shape of the footprint of our buildings.)

Ben
I appreciate hugs and I look forward to knowing the names of my neighbors.

Team: Process

Elissa
I appreciate the many smiling faces and open arms that welcome baby Grace at each gathering. I look forward to being able to eat a good dinner with friends and family even on days when I don’t have time or energy to cook and clean up. I also look forward to cooking huge pots and pans full of food to share!

Team: Process, Gardening and FFE

Sterling
I was born in St. Louis, but have lived in many different places in my life. This sort of wandering has been a feature for all aspects of my life, and I’ve learned a lot from it about being both anchored and experimental; qualities I bring to community. I’m a voracious reader and dialoguer when I get onto something new, because I like to bring large amounts of information to bear as I think things through. Then, I get very intuitive, my stores of information blending with what is happening in the here and now. 

I take life seriously, and bring a sense of play at the same time. To me, people bring the richness of their lives and experiences into the room, and help me learn and grow. I love to interact, and then there are times when I need deep solitude. I’m also one of those people who can entertain themselves in their own mind endlessly. 

I knew from a very young age that I was on this earth for a reason, and that reason has to do with love. My connection to God is very important to me. I see myself as on a lifelong path of discovery, and I am grateful for every day of my life. 

I appreciate the most about Daybreak that I get to play with my friends and be serious too.  I believe that what matters is not what happens to you, but how you respond to it.  I’m on my second retirement in the process of changing careers again.  My motto is “so many sand boxes; so little time.“

Teams: Steering, Process, Legal and Welcoming

Chris
Though I’m a fairly recent arrival to Portland, I feel right at home here. The trees and wildlife remind me of Michigan – the home of my birth and upbringing. And, I actually like the weather here better than Oakland, California, where Sterling and I raised our two sons, Lee and Derek. I also love the sense of community here in Portland – especially the Daybreak community that I am now calling my own.

I’ve worked as a registered nurse in many different settings. I love people, and nursing has provided me the privilege of being with and witnessing an immense variety of human experience.  Working as a visiting nurse really solidified my commitment to living in community because I saw how human relationships were more important in a person’s healing and well-being than material circumstances.

Some of the things that I love or feel passionate about are my immediate and extended family, especially my best friend and lover, Sterling. Also, the magical and wild ways of Spirit.  Nurturing life in all of its forms. Movement and physicality – I love walking in nature and movement that makes my body feel good, like yoga, dance and qi gong.  Kneading dough. Star and cloud gazing, especially from a hot spring. Young people of every age.

"I’ve learned enough to know that I’ve got a lot to learn." – Maya Angelou

I love being in this community and having the good fortune to work with so many warm, creative and energetic people. It is a joy to be building a way of living that will provide solutions to some of today’s problems—to be a part of history in the making. My husband, Sterling, and I are two of the newest members, yet we already feel a true sense of belonging. I look forward to the growth and new skills I will acquire from living in community. Things like cooking for a large group, making decisions for the good of the whole, and learning just how much more fun life can be when there are more people to enjoy it with.

Teams: Membership, Gardening, FFE and Welcoming

Bonnie
I was around two when my parents decided to move from New York to Illinois. We moved into one of the first planned communities, Park Forest. Very little was left to chance and as children, we were protected from as many hazards as the town founders could foresee. All the courtyards in the “rentals” surrounded a play area so that everyone inside could look out and see what kind of mischief we were trying to accomplish. No child was immune to a reprimand from any adult and we were immediately tended to when we were injured. All of the roads curved around the neighborhoods so that children could safely walk and bicycle anywhere. As an adult, the closest I came to this feel of community was living in a dormitory at school. The ability to go next door for a cup of coffee and the chance to find someone willing to listen to the latest tales always seemed like the ideal lifestyle.

As adults, Rog and I moved from Chicago to upstate New York where our first son was born. After much protest on my part, Rog convinced me that the West Coast really wasn’t all that provincial and really had something very positive to offer. Our second son was born and we became fixtures in our NE Portland house. I have never regretted that move and now find myself getting the best of several worlds: the warmth and generosity of community living and the vibrancy of an urban setting. I couldn’t ask for much more—(maybe a barrista to join our community?)

Teams: Gardening and FFE

Roger
I was born in Spokane, Washington, and lived a long time in Chicago, but Portland made a big impression on me when I was a boy. My family moved here and I went to Ockley Green School in North Portland and lived in a neighborhood that I knew I wanted to return to. I'm on my second career now, as a teacher of high schoolers with developmental disabiltites. This job allows my schedule to match up with Bonnie's teaching schedule. Now we get to eat dinner together regularly instead of being "ships that pass in the night.”

Bonnie and I met when we were on our high school's student council together. I got elected with the motto “No Hanky Panky with Stanke!” It wasn't really true.

We have two grown sons who have moved far away, but at least they moved to places we like to visit! I enjoy the books of Kurt Vonnegut, reading the paper at a good coffee shop, playing chess and touring beer establishments. I also noodle around with the guitar.

I'm participating in Daybreak's Membership Team, so there’s a good chance you’ll see me at an event or putting up posters in your local coffee shop.

Teams: Gardening

Karen
Growing up on a small family farm in northern Wisconsin, community was oriented around the churches, country schools, 4-H clubs, picnic sites along the river and work parties in the valley. When I went off to college at UW- Madison, I built another community of lifelong friends from the folks on the fifth floor of Sellery Hall.

After college I moved to San Francisco and got swept up in the technology craze. Fast change and globalization of technology led to work in Change Leadership. I shifted my focus from sales and business development to Organizational Development and got a master's of HR/Organizational Development from the University of San Francisco.

Eleven years of marriage to a native San Franciscan included some time in Washington, D.C., as my husband worked for Al Gore (supported his first presidential bid in 1988 – bet you didn’t even remember he ran!) and in the Clinton campaign and administration.

Just prior to Y2K, I was ready to slow down, started practicing Insight Meditation and began looking for a community that felt more in sync with my energy shift. After some time in the Southwest, which I loved but worried about where the water was going to come from, I landed in Portland with a dear, old friend from San Francisco. Many of the things that attracted me to SF in 1980 seemed alive and well in Portland. The people I have met here feel connected by a commitment to livability, community, the arts–and, what can I say–“green” is our color.

Daybreak Cohousing is a perfect way to live the values that have become more important in my life.  Living in a Community where people are connected. Where convivial gatherings are as natural as waking up in the morning. Where watching out for one another is the status quo.  Where everyone is seeking to be a better steward of the planet and the broader community. Where chats easily go beyond “Hello, how are you?”   Daybreak Cohousing isn’t built yet, but it clearly is already a Community.

Teams: Membership

Ken
I was born in Atlanta, Georgia, where I went to school and eventually earned degrees from Emory U and Georgia State U. I worked part-time jobs at churches, the YMCA and the Juvenile Detention Center until I found my niche as a teacher. That’s where I met Scot – we were both teaching in the same school in Atlanta.

After raising a son, Max, who now lives in Portland, and completing a humanities teaching career in Dallas, Texas, I retired to Asheville, North Carolina, where we have lived for seven years.

We became interested in cohousing about three years ago, when a few friends started talking about how it would be to live together. Then I participated in an intentional community conference at a local college and read the McCamant and Durrett cohousing book, and I was hooked. This is a sensible and meaningful way for people to live. After searching communities in various states, we found Daybreak.  It was meant to be.

I’m an avid cyclist and traveler. Scot and I have taken many cycle tours around the world, most recently in Japan. I enjoy reading and book clubs, spending time with family and friends, volunteer work. I am looking forward to our move to Portland and to helping establish this cohousing community. It will be wonderful.

Scot:
Yes! I have sold my house, packed up my business, my husband, my dog and  will soon be driving 2,618 miles to join the Daybreak Cohousing community!  It is so exciting to be with like-minded individuals. My first reaction to meeting members of this group was, “Where do I sign?” They were so welcoming and fun.  Their total commitment to the community, the environment, and to each other was enlightening and inspiring to me.

I am an Army brat.  I have lived and traveled all over the world.  The one disadvantage to this life is no home base. Joining Daybreak will be the beginning of planting my roots.  I have been teaching art my entire life. I have also had a successful pottery business in North Carolina. Now, I plan on becoming an Oregonian potter! Of course, there is the ‘crazed’ cyclist part of me, too! I love to ride my bike all over the world. The fact that all of the members of Daybreak are ‘foodies’ was a definite lure for me. I can’t wait to move-in and hang out in the common house!

Teams:

Erik
Hi, I’m Erik!  I was born in Washington County, Oregon and have lived here my whole life. The last 20 years I have lived in Tualatin. I graduated in 2000 from Tualatin High School and then completed two years in the Transition Program.

I have two sisters, and I am stuck in the middle. They are both married. I love being an uncle to my niece and nephew who live here in Portland. My sister is a teacher and my brother-in-law is a wood artist. My other sister lives in Sacramento, CA where she goes to law school. My dad lives in Florida with Sherry, my step mom. I only see him about once a year. I live with my mom, Laura, until I move to Daybreak. It will be my first time not living with my family.

I have worked at the Senior Center in Tualatin for almost 5 years. I help in the kitchen, do the recycling, and other miscellaneous jobs. I am also one of the original volunteers at the Tualatin Schoolhouse Food Pantry.

When I am not working, I hang out with Jennifer, a retired Kids on the Block puppet. We watch TV, play CDs, and work on the computer doing email and ripping and burning CDs. In the summer I am a volunteer puppeteer at Sand in the City. I am a long time Bethel Player, working in the kitchen and also acting. I usher for the Broadway Rose Theater Company, so I can see the shows for free. I love to travel with my mom. We have been to many places including NYC, Victoria, Alaska, and the beach many times. I love music, most any kind. I have a lot of CDs with a wide range of music from Disney to Country to Rock/Pop to Christmas. Bette Midler and John Denver are some of my favorites.

Teams:

Denise
I grew up in the big city of New York a long time ago. At the tender age of 18, I moved to Kansas and lost everything in a tornado within 24 hours of arriving in Topeka. After five very long years in the Midwest, I came to Oregon where I knew that my spirit and heart wanted to reside (along with my corporeal self). I had a daughter in 1973 and we lived in a variety of shared households for 14 years. I attended PCC’s Interpreter Training Program and then went back to school in California for four years, returned to Portland with a master’s degree and have been here ever since.

After a variety of different job experiences, including several collectives and cooperatives in the 70s, I settled on a career in sign language. Along with doing freelance interpreting, I also work in the Outreach Department at the Washington School for the Deaf in Vancouver providing consultation and service to school districts (and their interpreters) in Washington state.

My daughter lives in Portland and I have three grand-girls: Madison, age 11;Taylor age 9 (soon to be 10); and Jaden, age 2. My son also lives in Portland as does my foster daughter. Now you know why I drive a van.

I live with a very cranky dachshund, Oscar Wilde, who will be 15 years old in June (that’s 105 in human years).

Co-housing offers an alternative to the idea of “rugged individualism.” We rarely see our neighbors, children don’t play outside, and we scurry between car, house, work and stores, all the while connecting by cell phone. We have play dates for the kids and play dates for ourselves. Putting the brakes on all that, co-housing offers an opportunity to revitalize spontaneity and develop a real community with human connections in a diverse group of people. Woo-hoo, I can’t wait until we move in.

Teams:

Holly
Welcome Holly!

Teams:

Sarah
A "homeless cosmopolitan" from birth at the end of WWII, I now have no immediate family and few responsibilities. That leaves me open to develop my true response ability, even when one of my paths is to become a female curmudgeon. I have learned in my eclectic spiritual practices that I follow no guru or ideology and same in political matters. My parents gave me the gift of a great education in sending me to a private school (which I opposed politically). I think of them as the only parents I knew who seemed to truly love and respect each other. Although an Air Force brat who moved often, we never went very far from back east.

When I went to college at the University of Michigan, my father returned to college at the same time, leaving our lovely suburban home for the life of a Ph.D. student after a nervous breakdown caused by trying to become management when he just wanted to remain an engineer. The cohousing design with the walkway passing by everyone's windows reminds me of what my mother hated most about her downward mobility. In a state college I realized the benefits of my private Quaker schooling when I met students with no knowledge of the world beyond their hometown whether it be a rural small town, an urban ghetto, or a rich city. Our high school sent us to MLK’s March on Washington and social activism was in my blood in those days of civil rights and Vietnam protests.

When I moved to Cleveland, I did theater with the black arts center, Karamu House, and sold real estate for a black firm trying to open up the suburbs. I shook my booty in clubs to Funkadelic and got arrested for playing in a fountain. I wandered and ate in the immigrant neighborhoods and supported a levy and the poetry scene.

Loving the old neighborhoods and houses, I decided to learn more about them by going back to school for architecture, which is how I came to Oregon. My friends had a plan to buy abandoned houses around Karamu House and fix them into a neighborhood for local artists. But a great tragedy happened in my "family" in Cleveland while I was in Eugene and all our dreams fell apart. I dropped out of architecture school and bought a fixer house which I shared as a rental for architecture students. So that is how over the next 15 years, I fell into my "career" as a landlord. Finally, I quit my job working for the tax assessor and followed friends to Portland. So I like to joke that  I am in the two most hated professions (maybe worse than lawyers?). But I consider myself a frustrated architect and am sad that I will have no roll in Daybreak's design. There is always landscaping, which I do on all my rentals. I love the impermanence compared to buildings. I have taken several trips to Japan to study their art of gardening.

After trying to get into design/development in Kansas City, Missouri, and losing most of my money there, I have a new second home in a poor town in New Mexico in between the rich towns of Santa Fe and Taos. My friends who suggested it to me are back-to-the-land movement people from the 70s and I enjoy their multigenerational community. So I am looking forward to Daybreak's.

Teams:

Julianne, Matt, Mackenzie & Peyton
Hi, I’m Matt. I’m the one who looks asleep in the photo. (I’m actually just resting my eyes.) On 12/12/02 I went out on a date with Julie (aka “Julianne”), who I accidentally met online. We came up with excuses to spend some time together every single day for the next month or so. The result: mutual addiction (aka “love”).
Mackenzie is Julie’s teenage daughter. I was four times older than her (Mackenzie, not Julie) a month after we met, but now, five years later, I’m only three times older. I’m not sure what happened.
Peyton’s the short one. Since Julie and I met on 12/12/02 we decided it would be fitting if Peyton were born on 08/08/04, and so she was.

(Now I’ll describe everyone in reverse order of how I introduced them, so hold on to your hats.)

Peyton reads a lot – maybe too much, if ya ask me. (Back in MY day, kids delivered newspapers in their spare time, or swept up their grandpap’s general store, or walked six miles back and forth in the snow. Nowadays, they spend all their time with the skateboards and the hula hoops and those durn newfangled transistor radios…)

Sorry. I was reminiscing again. Anyway, we find Peyton delightful, but it’s possible we’re biased. She’s into dinosaurs (if you draw them for her, you’ll be her best friend), Raffi (that space in my head where the Clash’s “London Calling” and the Who’s “Quadrophenia” could be heard at all times is now occupied by a very gentle Canadian bouncily singing “Ha, ha, this-a-way, ha, ha, that-a-way”), Dr. Seuss (if you hear her talking to herself, it’s probably a word-for-word rendition of “Hop on Pop” or “Mr. Brown Can Moo”), throwing spherical objects into the air (if you ever meet her, the phrase “throw air please” is her request that you do same), and, best of all, she LOVES playing computer basketball with dad (okay, maybe not yet, but I’ll not give up…).

Mackenzie – goes to St Mary’s High School in downtown Portland, and seems to enjoy teenage stuff, most notably staring straight down and frantically punching out letters on her cell phone to remain in constant communication with everyone she knows (I think the kids call it “texting.”) Reads lots and lotsa books (I’m envious), watches grisly episodic television about crime scene reenactments involving dead people, does many things involving a computer that I can only guess at. Quite the artist, too – I keep pestering her to show me how I can draw in more than two dimensions, but she won’t do it. Some kind of trade secret, apparently.

Julie – grew up in Portland, Eugene, and various states in the Deep South at different times. Went to and worked at a whole bunch of colleges, ending up at Evergreen in Washington achieving an interdisciplinary degree in music, art, design and philosophy of science. Played different instruments in various weird Portland rock bands. Has done all sorts of jobs, from art director to game designer to her current job as an Apple technical writer. Into Scrabble (her bringing it up in very first email to me kind of clinched the deal). Loves to read; wishes she had more time for it. (Same here.) Plays about eight different instruments; I lost count. I dig her immensely, and I’m glad (and sometimes amazed) that she puts up with me.

Me (Matt) – Born and raised in Los Angeles; escaped in ’94. (Only thing I miss about it is my beloved Lakers.) Love Portland intensely (like most transplants) – had epiphanic (is that a word?) moment during first visit here riding bicycle on a sunny day during some playful light rain – I suddenly knew I had to move here; something about this place just resonated with me on a microcellular level. Have studiously spent most of my life working slacker-type gigs in order to have free time so I could procrastinate writing. (Have experienced undreamt-of success in that department – procrastinating.) Been working for Multnomah County Library as a clerk since 2001; love love love it. (Constantly handling books and DVDs – what could be better?) Currently doing that half-time and giving moral instruction to Peyton the other half (she’s very attentive when I explain why God likes Magic’s Lakers better than Bird’s Celtics).

In the late 80s, Julie was first introduced to the concept of cohousing via a feature article in the Oregonian. It has been a dream ever since to collaborate with like-minded people who want to create a life of shared energy while preserving a sense of individual space at the same time.

Our first experience of cohousing was as part of the OnGoing Cohousing Community in NE Portland, where households in an existing neighborhood (a retrofit community) share in meals, gardening, activities and community action. Cohousing just plain makes sense. After later moving closer to my (Matt’s) parents in Vancouver to be near extended family, we discovered Daybreak as a natural next step in our evolution as a family. We look forward to breaking new ground with such an amazing group of people!

Teams:

Lorell
I have been living in Portland for two years with my golden retriever, Barney. I am currently going to school to become a midwife. I am passionate about supporting women to give birth outside the hospital. By the time we move into Daybreak, I will be a full-fledged midwife! Moving to Portland was like moving back home for me, because I grew up just an hour outside Portland in a town called McMinnville.

In between living in McMinnville and Portland, I lived in Davis, California, for 17 years. I first moved to Davis to go to college and received my Bachelor’s of Science in civil and environmental engineering from UC Davis. But most of my time in Davis, I lived in the Muir Commons Cohousing community while working as a civil engineer for the county. Even though engineering was interesting, I did not feel passionate about it. After a lot of soul searching and personal growth, I discovered that midwifery was my passion. I loved living in cohousing and have missed living in community since moving to Portland. I love being part of Daybreak and very much looking forward to living in community again.

As if I didn’t have enough things on my plate, I just started an Internet mail order business called Radiant Belly. I am selling home birth kits, supplies for midwives and some organic cotton baby clothes. Owning and operating my own business is very exciting and it is going well.

In addition to midwifery, I am passionate about connecting with people, traveling the world, knitting, good food (eating and cooking it), living sustainably and protecting the environment.

Teams:

Judith
Welcome Judith!

Teams: