At our January 1999 community meeting, the residents of Monterey come up with some of the things we appreciate about living here.  The answers are grouped by Location, Grounds, Common Spaces, Activities, Diverse Populations and Interactions.
 

LOCATION

• 15 minute walk to 2 lakes, with paved trails and beaches.
• 10 minute walk to trail around a marsh and woods
• Good bus connections
• Good public schools
• Nearby outstanding recreation center/water park
• Centrally located
• Easy access to expressway
• A few blocks from a delicatessen & bakery, women's consignment store, kosher grocery, auto shop, Italian restaurant
• Under 2 miles from Uptown/Calhoun area, a major cultural/entertainment/shopping destination for the entire Twin City metro area.  A very UN-mall like place, with 3 bookstores (old and new), ethnic restaurants, 3 movie theaters, various shops, public library,  used clothing store, great people watching, Greek grocery

GROUNDS

• Wonderful beautiful landscaping
• Wooded hillside
• Occasional deer, raccoon, and other wildlife
• Wonderfully beautiful yards with great mature shade trees and a woods path to a city park, baseball diamond, skating rink
• Vegetable gardens
• Flower gardens

COMMON SPACES

• Central courtyard with picnic tables and lounge chairs plus another large lawn
• Luxurious & elegant large living room and salon
• 3 working fireplaces
• Underground tunnel connecting residential townhouses and common space; year round "barefoot" access, despite the weather.
• Large, well equipped woodshop, including table saw, band saw, drill press, table router, power miter, lathe, edger, numerous power hand tools, and a large assortment of other tools and materials.
• Office, with fax machine (dedicated phone line), and copier.
• Kids room, next door to dining room
• Functional laundry room where we sometimes meet and co-chat*
• Large 3 season (fully enclosed) porch.
• Ability to host retreats, conferences, weddings, large and small gatherings, both family and others (the number of different common spaces provide flexibility; two dedicated guest rooms provide overnight accommodations; includes large commercial grade kitchen with it's own dining space, as well the original dining room).

ACTIVITIES

• Coming home to community meals
• Discovering different ways to cook and eat
• Sewing (and chatting) circle
• Singalongs
• Videos viewed in a group(s), passed around
• Celebrations of weddings, memorials, births
• Kids Klub, including a recycling fund, run by the kids.
• I always find someone when I look for a companion for a walk
• Shared pets
• Jazz and dancing to a local band including our legislator
• Shared Art, Photographs, Crafts on Common Walls
• Tai Chi class
• Karate practice
• Gatherings to share memories, slides, research, projects, writing, songs, dancing, etc. etc. etc.
• Games, cards
• Large jigsaw puzzles done cooperatively, over weeks.

• All ages, from 4 year-olds up to 70+
• Multigenerational
• Enjoying other people's children and grandchildren
• Amazing number of different viewpoints on issues
• Learning different cultural, religious and spiritual traditions.

• Spontaneous co-chats* in the halls, at the mailboxes, laundry, workshop, driveway, etc.
• Safe environment for children to move freely
• Many chances to work together
• Chores more fun when shared
• Seeing clothes I no longer wear worn by other members of the community
• Helping each other with computing, trips to hospitals & doctors, borrowing this and that, shoulders to cry on, transportation to/from garage, airport, bus, train, etc.

*-  Co-chat  (kõ'-chat) v.i. [shortened: cohousing chat] Spontaneous conversation that occurs between two or more neighbors who know each other well, and who just happen to run into each other in a familiar, comfortable space, such as in a cohousing community.  The conversations last as long as both parties wish or have time for, and are a vital method for communications within the community, as well as contributing to feelings of well-being and satisfaction of being in a community.
This is contrasted with typical American residential neighborhoods of apartment/ condominium complexes or suburban settings, where commonly one scarcely knows one's immediate neighbors, not to mention the people down the street/hallway.  Such lack of familiarity makes the idea of spontaneous chatting very uncomfortable, especially when one has no idea if the neighbor who is hurrying on their way to someplace else has any interest in a neighborly chat.
In a community setting, such as cohousing, the residents all know each other well and all know that engaging in spontaneous conversation when desired or needed is an accepted practice, and know that the other party can decline the conversation if pressed for time at the moment or some other reason, making spontaneous conversations a natural and comfortable form of communication.  This makes such chats very common in cohousing communities, hence co-chat.