August 2004 – Terri does her usual exhaustive research, in this case, on intentional and cohousing communities. And despite knowing better from all she learns, chooses to begin efforts to create a cohousing community here in Portland.

January 2005 – Terri and Dave attend a Get It Built Workshop with Katie McCamant and Rick Mockler. The inspirational stories of living in and building cohousing, the nuts and bolts information on creating a community, and the chance to meet others passionate about community, lead to our first official cohousing meeting that night, right after the workshop. The next several months are spent in meetings as we explore visions and goals for our community, work on decision-making, and prepare for outreach.

August 2005 – The first outreach meeting for Sunrise Cohousing occurs in a neighborhood yoga studio and is followed by many more meetings in our homes.

December 30, 2005 – Terri and Dave meet for Indian food with Kristin and Rich to discuss the idea of buying and remodeling an existing 8-12 unit courtyard apartment complex so they can live in community quickly. (And then later, they will work on their dream of a bigger cohousing community.) Daybreak Cohousing is born!

February 2006 – Daybreak is incorporated as an LLC and the Development Team, as it later comes to be known, aggressively moves forward with a property search and raising funds.

July 2006 – Alex, Tiffany, Jeff, Liliane, Ben, Elissa, Gracella, and Martha join the community. There is hope and frustration as we search for property. And great joy as we begin to build the bonds, vision and structures that will support us as a community.

August 2006 – We made an offer on a property in the Overlook Neighborhood and it's accepted! Overnight, we’ve gone from our small community dream to our bigger cohousing dream. We start planning right away by luring Chuck Durrett to Portland for a site programming weekend.

October 2006 – After the usual trials and tribulations with the bank, we close on our property. We immediately experience the challenges of property management and feel the excitement of hiring our design team. The community continues an intense programming process for the next few months, prioritizing our wish list for the common house and private units.

January 2007 – We start schematic design. We reopen membership and begin focused efforts to bring more members into our thriving and busy community. More teams are born to work on.all our community and project tasks.

March 2007 – We welcome new members Sterling, Chris and Adin to our community with much fanfare. We enter the design development phase and continue the challenging process of making trade-offs to balance valued features and budget needs.

May 2007 – Another busy month! Our community grows as Bonnie & Roger and Karen join us. The entire community comes together for a Consensus Workshop with Tree Bressen. Kristin, Terri, Adin and Karen attend a Dynamic Facilitation Workshop held in Portland. The community tables at and participates in the Village Building Convergence.

July 2007 – We reach another major milestone and submit our design to the city for permit on June 19! And though we expect a six month wait before we get the permit, Team activity is, in a word, frenetic. We’re particularly busy in our outreach efforts for more community members. Socials and tables at local events galore. And the summer Street Fair season has just begun!

And the adventure continues. . .