ElderSpirit

Illinois’ first cohousing community fosters intergenerational connection, diversity, and inclusiveness. We welcome all those who share our vision of creating a sustainable residential community in a vibrant urban suburb. Oak Park Commons Cohousing seeks new members. Join the dozen households that have already helped plan and design a five story, 24-unit building near the commercial heart of Oak Park, Illinois. The building includes a mix of one, two, and three, bedroom ADA accessible units. A package friendly first floor mailroom adjoins the lobby, elevator, and parking entrances. Noise mitigation and energy efficient air conditioning assure year-round comfort. The Carpenter & Madison streets corner location includes within a pedestrian friendly half mile radius: a middle school, bus stop, grocery co-op, drug store, bank, CTA train station, Unity Temple, Rush Hospital, Fox Park, Mills Park, and many restaurants. Madison has traffic calming and bike lanes. The Village commercial center, barely a mile away offers the Lake Theatre Cinema, Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Formula Fitness Center, Public Library, Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, and specialty retail and service shops. Oak Park includes excellent K-12 schools. Lincoln public elementary school offers an optional Spanish bilingual program, Gwendolyn Brooks middle school’s wonderful performing arts opportunities and OPRF high school’s great college and career prep. Eight two and three bedroom units are still available for purchase starting at $406,640. Buyers pay a five percent earnest fee when signing a purchase agreement that goes toward down payment at closing. Units available for occupancy starting the last week of October 2025. Visit our website and talk with some of our members to learn more about who we are and how we envision building our community together. Website: https://oakparkcommons.com/ Contacts: Charles Hoch 708-721-8817; Sus

We are a retired couple who are downsizing, still living within the community. We are selling our large, flexible, comfortably rustic house, perfect for a multigenerational household, a family with kids or for 2 separate households. It’s 3000 square feet on 3 levels. The house is on a slope, with 2 main entrances. At one time it housed a large blended family. The current setup is a 2250 square foot, 2 bath main house with a 700 square foot rental apartment, also called an auxiliary dwelling unit (ADU). There is a staircase between the main and lower floor, with a lockable door. If desired, the ADU kitchen can be removed. The main floor has a very large kitchen/dining area, large living room, two small bedrooms, a bathroom with 2 sinks and a shower, a laundry room and a large mudroom. The non-bearing wall between the 2 bedrooms can be removed to turn it back to a single primary bedroom. The top floor has two bedrooms, one of which is primary with a large bright sitting area, and a large open middle area between them (game room, TV room, kids sleeping area, etc.). There is a bathroom with a claw-foot tub, no shower. The lower floor is the ADU, a finished storage area and a stand-up “crawl space“ which is used as a second pantry and storage. Attached to the house there is also a 150 sq ft wood paneled office/hobby space with its own electric and propane lines. Features: – straw bale construction, which is energy-efficient, great sound insulation, and provides a warm, soft, feeling. -very large functional kitchen with a long granite countertop. The dining area fits 10 people. -natural construction, with solid maple floors in the middle and upper level, marmoleum floor in kitchen and oak floor in the lower level. The two small bedrooms have painted wood floors. The doors are all solid wood. -large, functional, low maintenance patio area. Room for a table for eight and an additional sitting area. Propane hook ups for grills and smokers. -min

Learn more about the Cohousing Research Network! Are you a researcher or academic contributing in the areas of the communities movement who would have interest in getting to know us and possibly joining forces with us? Have you a particular interest in the Cohousing model? Would you like to learn more about the results from the recent Cohousing Research Network’s (CRN) survey? CRN is also setting up a series of virtual events for the academics and researchers to share results from their recent communities survey! Please let us know what interests you and how you’d like to contribute. We’d love to hear from you. You can contact us via our website here https://www.cohousingresearchnetwork.org/ or you can use the yellow Send Message button on this page. The Cohousing Research Network is the research arm of the Cohousing Association of the US. Our work and projects are supported by donations. Please consider supporting us by contributing here https://www.cohousingresearchnetwork.org/make-a-donation/

My first communal living experience was in 1972. Since then there have been many group housing situations. Now as a partly-retired grandmother, I no longer wish to live alone. I want to share in a positive way my abilities & skills. I don’t have a great deal of money but do have many talents to bring to a community. I’m a clean, sober, reliable hardworking woman. I cooked professionally, worked as an office manager, records specialist, and facilities manager. I am secular, open-minded and self-motivated. I’m partial to the Northwest (SF-Seattle). I have resources but want to add to my/our support by working. I can’t afford an expensive co-housing unit but I make living spaces better than it was before my arrival. Please help a gal find a home.