We are located in Southwest Colorado in the Four Corners region where we enjoy both the alpine beauty of the Rocky Mountains and also incredible red rock canyons of the Colorado Plateau.  We enjoy a moderate four season climate where the sun shines over 300 days per year.

Our land is 360 acres of Ponderosa Pine forests, Juniper, Sage, & Piñon woodlands, meadows, and irrigated pastures. We are only a few minutes west Bayfield and about 25 minutes east of Durango.

We are people of all ages and backgrounds who find ourselves as neighbors because of a shared passion to live in community. We are a diverse group of people with many varied gifts and perspectives. We live in an extended family environment offering a richness not found in other neighborhoods. To see our members, click here!

Do you yearn for community? Would you like to live in a rural setting in the southern Rocky Mountains closely connected with nature? Then the answer may be ‘yes’, but that’s really up to you to determine because our membership process is self-selecting. That is, once you’ve thoroughly explored and considered living at Heartwood, the decision is entirely yours. 

We have no ideology other than what we’ve agreed upon in our Vision: “To create and live in a community which fosters harmony with each other, the larger community, and Nature.” We have a great diversity of members who hold that Vision.

The best way to determine if you’re a good fit is to learn about Heartwood and get to know us. This website a chock full of information and is the best place to start. If you like what you see here and want to explore Heartwood further, then you should sign up for our newsletter (LINK) or sign up for a virtual tour (LINK).

Our Vision is to create and live in a community which fosters harmony with each other, the larger community, and Nature. This Vision gives each of us plenty of freedom to follow and express your own ideology and spirituality – and boy, do we! To see our agreements, click here!

Our neighborhood is designed with a thoughtful balance of private and shared spaces, making it easy to choose between quiet privacy and meaningful community connection. Roads and parking are located at the perimeter, creating a safe, child-friendly environment that naturally supports casual gatherings and neighborly interaction. The homes are built using healthy, environmentally responsible construction practices that respect the surrounding landscape.

The community consists of a cluster of 24 homes set within 360 acres of protected nature preserve and pastureland, with 14 additional homes currently being built in Phase 2 (to be completed in summer and fall of 2026). We live in a neighborhood intentionally designed to nurture community, protect personal privacy, and honor Nature.

We enjoy an incredibly rich community life located on a beautiful piece of land for the same amount of money that we’d spend to live on just a few isolated acres in the country or on a tiny lot in town.

Amenities include:

• 360 acres of forest and irrigated pastureland open space

• ​4000 square foot common house with commercial-size kitchen, dining room, guest rooms, rec room with ping pong and foosball tables, exercise room, library, Free Box (like our own little thrift store give-away), 1000 square foot terrace, and more

• community water wells, water system, and septic system

• 800 square foot yurt

• Village Green with it's children’s play structure, the S.S. Ponderosa

• 800 square foot organic greenhouse, raised beds, and irrigated gardens

• 100+ Mbps high-speed internet available

• tractor

• henhouse

• barn, hay storage, tack room

• 1000 square foot workshop

• hot tub

• 7 miles of trails

• tennis, pickleball, & basketball court

• 9 hole disc golf course​

• sledding hill

• bonfire circle

• labyrinth

• ​prayer circle

Our children live an especially charmed life. Because our neighborhood is a car-free zone and is situated within 350 acres of open space, it’s an incredibly safe place for children to roam, play, explore, and connect with their friends. There’s no need to set up play dates here. The kids have the freedom to go out and play with their friends.

As with all neighborhoods, there's a natural ebb and flow in terms of the number of kids living at Heartwood. In the past, we had 25 or more kids living here, but they have grown up and moved on so now we have fewer kids. Recently we've had several families with young children move in so we're seeing the tide turn. With the addition of Phase 2, we hope to bring in even more families with kids. We place a high value on supporting a multigenerational community.

Unlike a typical school setting where kids tend to only interact with kids their own age and gender, here at Heartwood there seems to be more interactions amongst boys and girls of different ages. Maybe it’s because having grown up together, the kids here are so close to each other that they’re almost likes brothers, sisters, or cousins. Maybe it’s because when a game of freeze tag gets going on a summer evening on the S.S. Ponderosa (our play structure in the Village Green), all the kids just naturally join in. Whatever the reason, the mixing of ages and genders is a good thing. It gives the kids a chance to assume many different roles: sometimes the leader, sometimes the follower; sometimes the one with the scraped knee, sometimes the caregiver.

Our children also get to interact with many more adults than is typical. They know that they can trust all of the adults here and can go to any one of them for help or comforting. In essence, they enjoy a village of extended family with many aunts, uncles, grandmas, and grandpas.

All of those other adults within easy walking distance takes a lot of pressure off of us parents. We don’t have to be all things to our children. Our kids can learn to build a birdhouse with Eric or have a conversation about dating with Beth. They grow up with the benefit of many more life perspectives and a broader view of the world.

There’s also a very strong informal network of mutual parenting support. We have no formal shared parenting. Parents are free to raise their kids as they see fit. In practice, however, parents help each other out a lot. When the kids are little, it’s very common for parents to watch each other’s kids. When the kids get a little older, one parent will arrange with another to be the kid’s 'check-in', which simply means that the child is on their own, but they know that there’s a specific adult whom they know and trust that is at home and available to help them if they need it. Parents who are new to Heartwood are sometimes reluctant to allow their children so much freedom, but quickly realize just what a safe and nurturing environment it is here and loosen up and enjoy the benefits of our mutual parenting support for themselves and for their children.

We have created a lot of amenities for the kids. There’s the big play structure in the Village Green, the S.S. Ponderosa, the Village Green itself for yard games, a basketball court, a tennis court, a pickleball court, a sledding hill, 7 miles of bike trails, and ping pong and foosball at the common house. And of course there’s the natural world to explore that comes with life in the country: forests, fields, pastures, ponds, hills, ravines, trees, and boulders. What we don’t have are a lot of television and video games. While some of that certainly happens, most parents here limit those activities so kids end up spending more time outside and with friends than they do in front of a screen.

You might also find these online resources helpful:

• Coming of Age in Cohousing​
  Curbed article - Feb 13, 2019.​​
  Includes interview with Helen Thomson, who grew up at Heartwood.​​

• Cohousing Families: Raising Children in Community
  A 13 minute video filmed at Forgebank, Lancaster Cohousing.

In truth, our vision of community is very consistent with 'traditional' cohousing. We do differ in a few areas. We have a strong commitment to build and live in an environmentally responsible community. We are located in a rural setting rather than an urban or suburban one. In general, rural communities tend to be closer-knit with stronger community fabric. We employed the Mixed Development Model, which means that we have a mix of 14 production-built homes (more economical) and 10 custom-built homes (more design freedom). In both cases, everyone owns a share of the common facilities and open space.

Ours is a history of a dream, lots of patience, persistence, and working together, and the eventual realization of that dream.

In 1993 there was a group of people living in Boulder, CO who were trying to create a cohousing neighborhood there. Because real estate prices were so high in Boulder, several of the households moved to Durango to try their luck at creating cohousing here. Durango Cohousing was born. Of that original group from Boulder, Gail Davidson and Lynne McGee now live at Heartwood.

In January of 1994, Mac and Sandy moved to Durango to join the Durango Cohousing effort. Shortly thereafter, we held a retreat to agree on a vision for Durango Cohousing. Out of that retreat, two visions emerged. One was a vision of creating a spiritual community and the other was one of creating a community which welcomed diverse expressions of spirituality, but not a spiritual community, per se. The first group continued on as Durango Cohousing and did not end up building a cohousing community.

Mac spent the rest of the year researching how to create a cohousing community and in 1995 founded San Juan Cohousing based on the second vision. We held monthly potlucks, created a master plan of the development process, recruited members, created our vision and values, our goals, and agreements on decision making and conflict resolution, kept informed via Pen Pal letters, created a development budget, created site selection criteria, attended the national cohousing conference, visited other cohousing communities, researched the county land use approval process, and hired a lawyer, engineer, and architect. We were rolling. Our dream of creating community was taking shape.

As it turned out, site selection was a huge effort. We looked at hundreds of pieces of land. We pored over county records, met with developers and other land owners, and followed up on any lead, no matter how promising. We just couldn’t find a piece of land that met all of our criteria:  affordable, could pass the county approval process (adequate water, sewer, access, and compatibility with surrounding properties), within 30 minutes of Durango, good solar access, tall trees, nurturing, and good gardening potential. We were getting a bit discouraged. We decided to remove tall trees as one of our criteria.

And then in 1997, at long last, we found our land – 360 acres of irrigated pastureland and pinon, juniper, and ponderosa forests. It even had tall trees! The only problem was that it was far more land than we could afford. We decided to go for it anyway. Mac and Sandy bought the land with the plan to sell about 100 acres to San Juan Cohousing and the rest to outsiders. As we moved ever so slowly through the county land use process, a plan evolved to develop a second phase and thereby keep all of the land. At the end of 1998, after an incredibly arduous struggle, we received county approval for our community.

Along about that time, we changed our name to Heartwood Cohousing. We had always known that San Juan Cohousing was just a temporary name and that we would choose our permanent name once we had found land. We wanted the name to come from the land. It certainly did.

Through 1998 and 1999 we held numerous design workshops as we collaborated with our architects to create a site design, private home designs, and a common house design. We had originally planned to sell lots to members and then have everyone build custom homes, but we soon learned that production homes would be far less expensive than custom homes. We had several members who still wanted to build custom homes (mostly natural strawbale or straw-clay homes) so we offered either a production home or custom home option. What we’ve ended up with is an amazing collection of environmentally friendly, solar homes – but I get ahead of myself.

We finally broke ground at the end of July 1999 only to find ourselves knee deep in mud as August proved to be the wettest August in recorded history. We persevered and completed construction of the production homes in early 2000. Most of the custom homes were completed in 2000 with the last completed in 2007. With the false threat of Y2K behind us and the dawning of a new millennium, our first move-in was on January 22, 2000.

Many of us thought that developing Heartwood Cohousing was to be the hard work and that once we moved in, we’d be able to relax and savor the fruits of our labor. Oh, how naive. There was still plenty of hard work ahead – relationships to forge, a community culture to co-create, and barren, dry, brown clay to landscape.

And now, some years down the road, the hard work continues, but so does the savoring of the fruits. We enjoy close relationships with our neighbors, our children run free, and lovely trees, shrubs, and gardens now thrive. We often compare the birth of Heartwood to the birth of a baby. The development process was the (very long) pregnancy and our community is now a teenager.  We are a happy and teenager, but we still have a lot of growing to do.

With each new person that moves into Heartwood, we receive an infusion of creative energy and passion and so we continue to grow in unforeseen directions. It’s a beautiful unfolding.

In the near future, we can make out on the horizon more and more Heartwood food production as we begin to realize the full potential of our greenhouse, gardens, and pastureland. We see new energy flowing in as Phase 2 is developed and new community members join the dream.

Living in the country, we have all manner of pets and farm animals: dogs, cats, bunnies, horses, cattle, chickens, llamas, etc. All of the animals are privately owned. All animal owners are responsible for making sure that their animals don’t adversely impact their neighbors. This requires plenty of give and take on the part of both the animal owners and the non-animal owners in the form of respect for non-animal owners’ right to quiet enjoyment of their home and neighborhood and tolerance for the animals. We also strive to ensure that our animals don’t harass the wildlife.

Some owners keep their dogs and cats under pretty close control and other owners let them roam free, so long as they are well behaved.

An example of a creative solution that we were able to develop is our system of poop patrol. Rather than each dog owner being responsible for their dog’s poop (which would be nearly impossible with free roaming dogs), each dog owner is responsible for a certain area within the cluster to 'patrol' to keep the area poop-free. If a non-dog owner does, however, find dog poop in their yard, they just call or text the dog owner responsible for patrolling their yard to get it cleaned up. This kind of system allows us to have free roaming dogs and is really only possible because of the high level of communications and cooperation that is part of our community culture.

We have a very mixed neighborhood in terms of how people make a living. There’s a high proportion of entrepreneurs here who work online from their homes. We have 100+ Mbps high-speed internet available and a great little regional airport. We also have our share of doctors, teachers, nurses, business people, etc., who work mostly in Durango, but also some in Bayfield. And we have many retired people.

Although we are not set up to provide an assisted living environment, because of the support that we give each other as a way of life here, we enjoy a neighborhood well suited to people of all ages. When an older neighbor needs help shoveling snow or getting up on a ladder to change a light bulb, there’s almost always someone available that they can call on for help. No doubt that same elder will be bandaging a kid’s scraped knee or giving them a cookie later that week. The giving goes both ways.

Our common house is handicap accessible and most of our homes are designed to allow for someone to live on the first floor if need be.

Like most parents, Heartwood parents are very dedicated to their children's education and we work collaboratively to ensure that each of our kids are getting the best school experience possible for them, whether that means participating in the Heartwood Homeschool Cooperative or carpooling to Durango.  Parents choose between the Bayfield public schools, Durango public schools, or homeschooling. The most popular schools amongst Heartwood families these days are the fabulous project-based Durango charter schools: Mountain Middle School and Animas High School.

As children develop and their needs change, parents may move them from one school choice to another. Reflective of that fluidity, the Heartwood Homeschool Cooperative is no longer operating, but it could again one day depending on the needs of the kids and the parents.

Bayfield (5 minutes away) has a great little coffee shop, banks, a few very good restaurants, a great hardware store, a wonderful award-winning library, a friendly small town grocery store, a drug store, a big farm equipment store, a real nice saloon, and the other basic services you’d expect in a town of 1700 people. Durango (20 - 30 minutes away) has all kinds of stores and restaurants. There are several wonderful health food stores, great restaurants, several movie theaters, and Fort Lewis College where the concert hall has a full schedule of good shows.

Of course a lot of the entertainment happens right here at Heartwood. Folks usually linger long after the common meals are over, visiting with neighbors or working on a jigsaw puzzle. Someone will often host a movie showing at their home. We have a book club and yoga classes. And we also hold  several music and other 'homemade' shows every year.

If we have any homes available, the price will be listed on the Available Homes page. 

When you’re considering the price of a Heartwood home, it’s good to keep in mind all of the common amenities that come with it:

• 350 acres of forest and irrigated pastureland open space

• ​4000 square foot common house with commercial-size kitchen, dining room, guest rooms, rec room with ping pong and foosball tables, exercise room, library, local foods store, Free Box (like our own little thrift store give-away), 1000 square foot terrace, and more

• community water wells, water system, and septic system​

• 800 square foot yurt

• Village Green with it's children’s play structure, the S.S. Ponderosa

• 800 square foot organic greenhouse, raised beds, and irrigated gardens

• tractor

• henhouse

• barn, hay storage, tack room

• 1000 square foot workshop

• hot tub

• 7 miles of trails

• tennis, pickleball, & basketball court

• sledding hill

• bonfire circle

• labyrinth

• prayer circle

• significant financial reserves

Other than your mortgage, you can expect to pay normal homeownership costs and HOA dues.

Here is an example of typical homeownership costs for a Phase 1 home in 2025:

• electricity: averaged $75 per month

• natural gas: averaged $75 per month

• internet: $80 per month (various plans available)

• home insurance: $240 per month

• property tax: $2500 per year

HOA dues are between about $250 and $550 per month. The amount varies depending upon the number of people living in the home. See more detailed HOA information in the FAQs below.