How I Built a Multigenerational Coliving House and Extended My Family
Family is made from love, not blood.
I shouldn’t be surprised that my home has seven adults, a dog, four cats and an uncomfortable amount of reptiles, residing in its walls.
This was not the plan, though.
I originally rented the home for my two sons, after my dad passed away. One had been living on the East Coast with him and the other had been trying a variety of living arrangements when college was interrupted during the pandemic.
We had both been stuck when Covid hit, as I had been nomading outside the U.S. and he had been living in the dorms at school. We ended up having to scrap both of our plans, and we met up in LA, where I had been exploring at the time.
We spent a few months in an empty, closed-down Las Vegas and then moved to Palm Springs for the summer. I knew it was time for him to decide where he wanted to live. After living in the San Francisco Bay Area for most of middle and high school, my younger son, Gavin, wanted to try the Pacific Northwest. He had friends who had moved to Seattle and a willing roommate in his friend since high school, Josh.
Josh was raised mainly by his grandparents and foster care, and he was ready to start college and a new life in WA…
