We are an intergenerational group who is dedicated to creating community in Marin.
​Read our bios below and get to know us. ​

John & Cathy Caye

Cathy loves to travel and enjoys traveling with her family. Never one to shy away from new people, outgoing might be an understatement. Chatty Cathy might also apply. She is currently the master of all things volunteer, and helps with everything from school-based activities to after school, and (gasp!) before school Jazz activities. She is willing to try most things and enjoys learning about almost everything. Having lived in cohousing at Blueberry Hill in VA, she knows she enjoys what cohousing offers and can't wait until a cohousing project gets going here in Marin.
John is a co-instigator of this project. He and his wife Cathy have been "chasing the dream" since they met almost 20 years ago and attended one of Katie & Chuck's Berkeley lectures. For three years they lived in DC, and were part of Blueberry Hill Cohousing. It was a great experience to raise their girls there, and they still keep in touch with their old neighbors., especially their youngest's godmother. Professionally, John is a Program Manager for a large healthcare organization, with an education in architecture and construction management.  He also serves on Novato's RCCS (Parks) Commission. His career has taken his family all over the US, and he's even had the good fortune to live overseas a few years: Italy (college), Honduras, Micronesia and Germany. He's long wanted to start a community here, and has been seriously trying to make this happen for the past couple years.  He believes this group has the passion and understanding to finally make a community in Marin real.

Judy

Judy is the co-instigator of this project with John. She moved to Marin in 2007 and couldn't understand why finding a place to live was so hard! It took her 3 trips to the area to finally find a barely affordable condo to rent which called her to work for housing and other social justice issues faced by residents of Marin. She has been an ordained pastor for over 30 years and works with several Bay Area churches focusing on creative, transformational, joy filled living. She loves working with clients as a certified Co-Active Coach and won a scholarship to the Co-Active Training Institute's Leadership program where her quest became establishing cohousing in Marin. She is a cultural creative combining her passion for new experiences, the expressive arts, and healthy living, with her passion for travel and new perspectives. When at home, she often has a furry, foster bunny with a 'Z' name to share with visitors and can't wait to read her many books to children, play music, dance, just have silly fun and relax with this great community of cohousers!

Elina Coulter, Paul Chaffee, & Laszlo Chaffee

Paul is a statistician and Elina teaches parent-child music classes and runs a business. Laszlo is in sixth grade. We love the idea of cohousing because it’s a sensible way to live. Children have built-in-playmates, babysitters and adopted aunties, uncles, and grandparents. We all get needed face-to-face contact with other humans working together to cook, craft, exercise and just enjoy one another’s company. Cohousing offers a perfect balance of privacy and community and we can’t wait to be part of it!!

Rebecca

Rebecca is an astonished senior, loves dogs and horses, and is a renegade Buddhist, tax professional and computer system development consultant. She looks forward to authentic communication in the context of community.

Thomas

Thomas is passionate about living in a sustainable, joyful community with creative neighbors who share his love of hiking along the shore and in the nearby hills, cooking, singing, and caring for each other. Thomas is an experienced project manager used to working on projects to protect the environment. A go-getter, he is interested in getting things done in an efficient manner. He is an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Marin. Currently serving as Vice President of the Board of Trustees and a Committee Chair. He also sings in the choir. One of his interests is running weekend retreats at Walker Creek Ranch in West Marin. Living in cohousing seems like being on a permanent retreat.

Emily, Doug, and Nathan McFarland

Doug is a physicist and designs, builds and conducts research on high-field MRI devices and is learning to play the ukulele. Emily is the stewardship director at a local Episcopal church and likes to hike and knit. Their son, Nathan, is finishing 7th grade and enjoys Design Lab, and riding his scooter. 

​"We are very excited about the co-housing model as so much research shows that happiness is directly correlated with strong social ties and a robust community life. Having attended the recent planning workshop with Charles Durrett, the project architect, we were sold on the idea of spontaneous ping pong games and music jams happening after a community meal. This, coupled with access to our own private home seems ideal. It’s an overused concept but nevertheless is profoundly true, it takes a village."

Catherine and Lila

Catherine grew up in Iowa for the first half of her life, but has lived in the Bay Area for the second half. She has always loved living in community, whether it was camp or the co-op she lived in for 5 years in Oakland. Catherine is a single mom to Lila, an energetic and creative 7 year old, who loves animals, as well as their dog Wonder, an unendingly patient American Bully.

​"Living in community, I loved how a trip to the bathroom would end up in a sweet conversation with a housemate which would lift my soul that I didn't even know needed lifting. I hate parties, but living in community is different. It's more like being among family where there are opportunities for connection without required small talk."

Krista, Mitch, and Ben

​Greetings! We've been interested in cohousing for years and are so excited to join a community forming in the Bay Area! We look forward to common meals, community gardening, neighborly company, and collaborative decision making. We are a teacher and social worker who love the outdoors, the kitchen (and other people's kitchens), listening to podcasts, and exploring new places together on foot, bike, and flotation device. We're thrilled that our baby will have playmates, older sibs, and lots of aunts and uncles in his daily life at C Street.

Joselle

​Joselle is an empty nester with two young adults off to college. CJ (23) and Cammie (21) had filled her recent life. It was now time for a new adventure!
As a retired Intensive Care Nursery R.N.,  she knew working with families is rewarding. Finding cohousing seemed the perfect answer to a private home and an enjoyable enriching experience in a community full of interactions and relationships. An even greater bonus was a home that strove to be sustainable, economically attainable, and morally conscious of the environment. Joselle wanted to involve herself with purposeful work and one that taught her new skills. She said “I’m in!”
Joselle loves taking her 2 small dogs on Marin’s beautiful hiking trails, cooking, staying fit/aging gracefully, traveling and continued learning! 

Phil and Melissa

​Phil and Melissa are empty nesters, having sent their two adult children, Ben and Katherine out to make their marks on the world.  Rather than retiring to their own personal “bubble”, they have concluded that moving into a cohousing community is just the thing.  Phil is a long-time energy consultant, doing what he can to help clients wade through the complexity of the electricity industry.  He has developed an additional interest in fermentation, making wine, kombucha and other fermented products to share and enjoy.  Melissa, having completed her child-raising role, is developing her musical chops.  She plays piano and guitar and has seriously taken to choral singing.  They both sing with local choruses.  Thrilled to have the time and energy available to put into helping develop a thriving community, they look forward to surrogate grandparenting and interacting with other community members in all sorts of things, like cooking and eating together, enjoying music and just hanging out.  Being able to sneak back to their own private home space makes it perfect.
No Photo Available 

Rob and Rosa 

​Rob and Rosa are Northern California natives with North Bay roots. When not working or caring for their two daughters, Ella and Alex (three years and six months respectively), they enjoy a variety of outdoor pursuits, along with reading, cooking, travel, and working on projects. Rob is a cynical idealist and Rosa is a idealistic realist, and both have prior experience with cooperative living. Both believe in living intentionally, with family, community, and public service as the foundation of a life well lived. Both are looking forward to putting down roots in Hamilton with C Street Village.
Jonathon, Brooke and Ryder Stage
​​Brooke has said for years, that the way people used to live, in small, interdependent, supportive villages, sounds ideal to her! She has investigated several ways to try to make it happen for her family, to no avail. Enter... Cohousing. Finally!

Jonathon grew up in small-town Wisconsin, and moved to California during high school. He is currently a Vice President at an energy efficiency consulting company. While his spare time is limited in this phase of life, he enjoys fixing and building things, he's game for any outdoor activity, he enjoys perfecting his barbecuing skills, and is looking forward to the low pressure social interactions of the community, while having his own personal space to retreat to.

Brooke is a Bay Area native, former flight attendant and nanny, and current stay at home parent. She is very family and friend focused; always looking for any excuse to get loved ones together. Her favorite thing is whatever is "new" to her, whether that be traveling (including places/trails/museums around the Bay Area), cooking a recipe that stretches her skills, discovering a subject to nerd out about, or trying an activity she's never done before.

Ryder is four years old, and particularly energetic and friendly. He will be in heaven having a loving community of all ages around him. You can surely expect knocks at your door from an exuberant, chatty little fella!

Lynn with her niece Jenn, and great nephew Antonio

Lynn’s roots make her a natural for cohousing. Growing up the youngest on a South Dakota farm and then moving to the county seat, population 1,500, a stand-in for Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” life was all about celebrating and working alongside neighbors. A career in the professional theatre started in St. Paul, Minnesota at the History Theatre (now in its 42nd season) Lynn co-founded with her late husband, playwright Lance Belville.
She continues to direct, produce, and act when she isn’t “wrangling” stories for charitable foundations. She is proud to be known as the “cool aunt” in an extended ecosystem of nieces, nephews, and their progeny.

Carol and Stan
Carol and Stan met while serving in VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) in Carroll County, Georgia in the late 60’s. Carol (from California) had just graduated from nursing school and Stan (from Maryland) had just graduated from college. After a whirlwind romance, they were married in Oak Mountain, Georgia. Upon finishing VISTA, they settled in Boston, so Stan could obtain a Master of Arts in Teaching. They then traveled west so Carol could obtain her BSN and MSN, while Stan taught junior high school math and science. Then it was Stan’s turn to go to medical school and to complete a family practice residency program. Finally, it was time to start a family--first came Serena and 3 years later, Scott. Serena was recently married and lives in Kirkland, WA. She works remotely coordinating digital media advertising for Undertone. Scott lives with his girlfriend in Santa Cruz where he works in a restaurant as a sou chef. He is also in charge of all the fermentation projects at the restaurant. He has a super green thumb and can grow anything from nothing. Carol and Stan have been interested in cohousing for 20 plus years and are thrilled to be working with C St. Village cohousers to create a sustainable community. Our family also includes a miniature dachshund, Tater, and a cat, Oscar.
Dale
Having been part of dining co-ops in college and then living in a collective in Berkeley, Dale saw a flier advertising a talk on community and housing. She attended what was possibly the book tour launch for Katie McCamant and Chuck Durrett's first book "Cohousing: a Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves" and has wanted to live in cohousing ever since. A choc-a-holic (dark, of course), Dale loves her dog, petroglyphs, succulents, and most things outside. She aspires to a sustainable life (growing up during the energy crisis of the 1970s started her down this path - she became a solar energy crusader at age 9). She is confident she has found her tribe with Cohousing Marin.
Alison and Gaelen
Alison raised her daughter Gaelen in Novato as a single mom. She moved to Mountain View when Gaelen started high school and works at Stanford with adolescents and young adults with cancer. Alison and Gaelen both love soccer but Gaelen is the one with all the athletic talent. They both love hiking and going to the beach with their “pandemic puppy” Jack. Alison lived in Japan for several years during college, loves traveling around the world and can’t wait to travel again soon. Gaelen is a STEM kid, loves science and building things and will be off to college to major in Engineering. Alison has been looking for cohousing ever since Gaelen was born, joined Marin Cohousing back when it first started, and rejoined last year from Mountain View.