hdomag – Colibri Commons

January 2, 2025January 3, 2025

New year and dreams renewed – Happy 2025!

Our family has dedicated the first day of 2025 to envision and dream about what is next for Colibri Commons. We are dreaming about building a food forest, a small coffee shop/tree house, naming our homes. It is home.

Here there go the names. The existing home is Casa Colibri, the two new units are blue jay house (south side) and owl house (north side). The community space is casa Esperanza and our chicken coop is casa kombucha. Kombucha was a hen was a rescued but that died and was buried at the same site where the coop was later built. So, her spirit protects the coop.

Casa aqua is the green house where we hope to grow aquaponics. And finally, we hope to set a small coffee shop/tree house close to the pond under the big tree.

The food forest is planned to be in a narrow area (19 by 66 ft) on the south side. It would be nice to have a small dome built to integrate with the food forest and the rest of the plants. We probably build that ourselves, just like the chicken coop.

These dreams are not going to happen right away. We still need to recover from the investment of the ADU and restore the soil after all the work done in the property.

Let’s see what five years from now this looks like.

December 31, 2024

Homes virtual tour

The construction is on schedule and we are expecting these two homes to be ready in February. The only big uncertainty is when the inspectors come to verify all the requirements.

These homes are 800 sq ft two bedroom and two full bathrooms. They include a kitchen island and an ample living area. We have constraints going inside the units until all inspections happen and it is hard to show that when interested visitors come.

However, the manufacturer, Wolf Industries, has prepared a virtual tour of this design and everyone can get a sense of the interior of these homes. There are few differences with our design because we wanted the two entrances to face each other, the big door in the living room was removed and a wall was added as part of the living area.

Each home includes its own washer and dryer, and all the stove, water heater, and heating are electric. Eventually, we hope to add some solar panels to those units.

Check out the virtual tour below:

December 31, 2024

Casa Esperanza – Colibri Commons share space

The dream of building this community is an old one. We knew we needed a common space for our commons and we thought about upgrading our garage for that purpose.

Unfortunately, we don’t have picture of the old garage. It was not special and at some point, it was packed with luggage, old stuff, and it was unwalkable. We used to store chicken feed there and had some mice coming through holes. We also had structures that the previous owners left as part of a workshop.

We decided to clean it up and upgrade it in 2022, partially as a result of the failure to start the larger Colibri Commons project with six units (three duplexes) as shown in the old posts.

We invested some of the savings with the idea of creating a gathering and community space. We added a storage room, tried some grey water system, a kitchenette, and some spaces to work with high chairs looking at the coop and garden.

We could savage some of the old wood and plywood and use it for building some raised beds for our front yard. We also went to the ReBuilding Center and Community Appliances to get the furniture and appliances we needed. Nothing was really new, except for the kitchen hood and the water heater.

The space also has a ceiling sound system for indoors and outdoors, in case we want to share the joy of music. We also added a side door to create some flow around the space, by also allowing to open the garage door in good weather.

Finally, we added a heat pump and other thermal features in the ceiling, like a fan that automatically starts when the temperature gets to high, helping to cool down the space.

Currently, our washing and dryer machines and a freezer are there as well. The new ADUs already have their own washer and dryer.

We hope we can use this space for co-working, home schooling, parties, meetings, and other gatherings.

Our hope is that this space can be use for building community, as emergency shelter, and for working together in reaching out our shared goals.

December 24, 2024December 31, 2024

Rental listing for the two new units

The house is a 2-bedroom 2-bathroom 800 sq ft ADU, including access to a shared 640 sq ft community space. This is a family-friendly community, with 2 other small families living in separate homes on the 1/3 acre property. There is a shared 640 sq ft communal space for community dinners, movie nights, etc.

Located near restaurants, grocery stores, 2 bus lines and a MAX station, this small independent unit is part of two newly constructed ADUs in our backyard. The location is accessible to everything, and offers a peaceful, nature-filled place, including 7 chickens, and lots of garden beds. The homeowners live on the property.

This property offers the best of both worlds—both city and nature, both community and privacy. The unit is newly-constructed and expected to be completed in early February 2025.

All utilities are paid by the tenant. Appliances are electric, including an energy-efficient mini-split heat pump for both heating and air conditioned cooling. Dogs and cats under 25 lbs are allowed, though please note the chickens.

The ADU units will not be available for move-in until Feb or March. Rent is $1699/month. Construction is ongoing until the end of January and landscaping will take place in January and February.

If you are interested, send us an email to colibricommons@gmail.com

We are asking to all interested in this unit the following questions:

1. Who is in your household, and what are their ages, including pets.

2. What is/are the sources of income in your household to pay rent and utilities? If you are interested, we will ask to share monthly income.

3. The ADU is closely located next to two other small homes, and we share 1/3 of an acre with chickens and garden beds. What qualities are most important to you in a housing situation? Please describe housing situations that have not been a good fit for you.

December 24, 2024December 31, 2024

Big milestone in December

The ADUs are all set in place and final details will take about a month to complete, including all the siding, interior painting, utilities, and more.

It all looks great with the ADUs, but the rain is not helping. The trenching for the utilities disrupted all the soil, which was already compacted by the heavy machinery used to move the ADUs. But, all the sewage, water, electric, and communications pipelines are in place!

For us, seeing the prefab units being moved across our yard, navigating through tight spaces, sliding them over the backyard, and finally seeing them in place, was such a big milestone.

Here some pictures of the whole construction process until this update in December 2024.

House are in place, but rain made things messy

We got a lot of mud!

The site is not ready yet, we currently getting quotations for landscaping and we are on schedule. The plan is to have the units ready in February.

Let us know if you are interested to join our little community by sending an email to colibricommons@gmail.com.

November 12, 2024November 28, 2024

Two new ADUs coming to Colibri Commons

The Colibri commons is getting ready for TWO NEW ADUs!

Each ADU is 800 sqft, each with two bedrooms and two full bathrooms. Shared spaces include a community garden and a greenhouse. (Both ADU units have built-in washer and dryer units.)

Each ADU includes:
- Electric Water Heater (Heating and cooling)
- Vaulted Ceilings
- Granite or Quartz Counters
- Full Living Room
- 5×5 Covered porch
- Master Suite w/ Walk in Closet
- Kitchen Island

This is the same model we will have in our property.

These two models are expected to be ready in January 2025. If you are interested in renting them please send us a message via the contact form.

August 17, 2021November 26, 2024

2021 version 3 of the concept

We are still looking for construction financing. It’s over $1.5 million for 6 units!

Listening to feedback, we have removed the spaces between the units and created three blocks of buildings: Existing house, 4 row units and one duplex with the common area and common space (open basement).

The new space has given us extra space for a common garden, based on feedback from friends.

Here there are some views of the new concept:

Video showing version 3 of colibri commons concept.

July 21, 2021December 1, 2024

2021 version 2 of Colibri Commons

We have a new version of Colibri Commons, due to some double checking of minimum density requirements. The new design is 3 duplexes:

4 units with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 1350 sq ft total

2 units with 2 bedrooms, 1.5 bath 900 sq ft

Common house basement 900 sq ft

This version adds a community garden and a pergola for community gatherings.

We will do more work on the designs.

September 1, 2020July 28, 2021

Original concept of Colibri Commons

Please check out this video of our vision for Colibri Commons, an 8-unit cohousing community. We are looking for other values-aligned households who are interested in joining and pre-buying a unit in our multi-racial, multi-generational cohousing community. Please fill out the Contact form if you’re interested in learning more.