Grace grew up living on the Africa Mercy, a hospital ship with an international crew, traveling everywhere from Madagascar to France. Now settled in the U.S., Grace earned their MS in Psychology from Pacific University and now runs their own online therapy practice. In their downtime, Grace loves reading, gaming, crafting, gardening, baking, foraging, yoga, and dancing—and is always picking up new hobbies!

Jared grew up in Lynden, WA, studied communications at Washington State University, and spent 10 years as a technical director at Cornwall Church. Recently, he made a career shift and now works as a pest control technician with EcoShield. Jared’s big passion? All things nerdy—especially Dungeons & Dragons, board games, and video games.

Grace and Jared met online and tied the knot in Vegas with an Elvis officiant! They live in Lynden and are dreaming about their future—starting a family, building community, and creating a meaningful life together. They’re excited about the cohousing community forming in Bellingham and enjoying getting to know all people involved with 4th Corner commons.

Ruth describes herself as a  1970’s “hippie girl” and she comes to 4th Corner Commons with lots of good, and not so good, experiences in communal living. With this, she brings her wisdom and insights as she considers cohousing for her future and she appreciates the intentional structure of cohousing.

Ruth is now retired and lives in Shoreline, just north of Seattle. Her last job was working as a contract specialist handling architectural and engineering contracts for King County. She’s thankful to her two adult children nearby.

Ruth is busy and does a great job of carving out time to be a part of 4th Corner Commons. She’s been an active member of  Plymouth Church in Seattle, and for fun she enjoys spending time with her two little dogs, Clover and Piper, singing in choirs, expanding her music skills by learning the ukulele, and reading both book club picks and whatever else catches her eye. Ruth is also an avid traveler. Recently she was back in Guatemala where in earlier years, much of her travel focused on service projects through Habitat for Humanity and Guatemala Village Health. 

Ruth is excited to be exploring the possibilities of 4th Corner Commons.

Carla and Al have lived in North Seattle since 1993. Carla grew up in Ballard and after trying a few different career paths, Carla has spent the last 10 years coordinating internships and teaching career development at North Seattle College. Now, she’s retiring and excited for more travel, hiking, Spanish lessons, reading for fun, and whatever new interests pop up!

Al grew up in Grandview, Washington, completed a sheet metal apprenticeship at Hanford, and later finished his degree at UW after meeting Carla. After careers in law offices and as a stay-at-home dad, he retired in 2018 from managing special needs trusts. Al loves gardening, hiking, fishing, playing bridge, and meeting new people. While Carla is leading the charge toward cohousing, Al’s excited too—he’s eager to see how this new adventure comes together!

Cohousing has been on Carla’s mind ever since she was introduced to the idea years ago during a bike ride. When she heard about the 4th Corner Commons project in Bellingham, she was immediately intrigued—community feels like a perfect part of the retirement dream.

Rachael, Colin, and their new baby, Theo, will soon be moving to the Bellingham area, and we couldn’t be more excited to have them closer.  

Colin will soon be starting his career in Bellingham as a Nurse Practitioner. He is passionate about the outdoors through his past work in wildland firefighting, ski patrolling, river rescue, and outdoor search and rescue. He has an interest in first aid and community disaster preparedness. He loves to cook for others!

Rachael has most recently been a first grade teacher at an environmental school and will be working on finding a job in her second masters-English Language Learning-once she transitions to the Bellingham school district. She is passionate about herbal medicine and gardening, music and playfulness, and she has extensive experience with outdoor education for kids.

Rachel and Colin come to us with a lot of experience living in community. Rachael lived in a Camphill community on the east coast, and lived in intentional community houses in Spokane, Virginia, and North Carolina. Colin has lived in and ran a community house in Portland. 

We 4CC’ers are thrilled to be a part of Colin and Rachell’s growing family and building community with them.

Curious, hopeful, and doing some good old-fashioned soul-searching - these are the words Shelley shared when she joined us as an Explorer. Being intrigued by cohousing for years, the time now feels right to dive into cohousing more seriously.

Born in California, and living there now, Shelly has bounced around some—San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Santa Fe, D.C. Since leaving the PNW in the late 80’s, she’s always held onto the possibility of moving back. Now that her son lives here, it’s an even bigger draw. 

Professionally, Shelley has spent her life in public service. She studied public administration and natural resource management at UW, worked in the mayor’s office in Renton, then at the EPA in San Francisco, and eventually at Los Alamos Lab where she worked on environmental clean-up programs. Since 1999, she’s been in Ventura working in county planning and is starting to dream about retirement and more time for fun.

Speaking of FUN…Shelley enjoys all sorts of things. Nature, (very high on her list), traveling, singing in her choir, getting together with friends, baking, binge-watching good TV, walking and relaxing with her sweet dog, gardening, sharing a good meal, protesting for a good cause…the list is long. 

Shelley is looking forward to seeing where her 4CC exploration takes her.

Micah is a software engineer who’s always learning something new — whether it’s how to improve his disc golf game, a deep dive into philosophy, a new chess opening or a human biology hack to help keep him alive to 100 years old. He’s a music lover and would probably be a teacher or artist in another life. He’s an Enneagram 5 who likes to work smarter, not harder. He’s not a big fan of chit chat, and would rather spend hours talking about the deeper meanings of life.

Rebekah is a stay-at-home mom who loves a good farmers market morning, niche music genres from Chappell Roan to film scores to bluegrass, and getting lost in a good book (or five). Before having kids, she worked in communications and PR. She’s happiest when she’s surrounded by anything that combines beauty and function and loves a good aesthetic that appeals to all five senses at once. You’ll find her scoping out group workouts, antiques, fresh food — especially if she can enjoy them outside. She loves learning about gardening, religion, human behavior and history, and would love those passions to propel her to work in the mental health field when her girls are older.

Micah and Rebekah have known each other since before they were born — their families were friends long before they were a couple. They’ve been married for ten years and live just outside Springfield, Missouri, with their two young daughters and their dog, Benji. They’re excited to raise their kids in a community where neighbors feel more like extended family and everyday life feels a little more connected.

Suze, a Washington native, first came to Bellingham in 1983 to attend Western Washington University. After some bike travel, meeting Don, and a few years in New Jersey, her favorite education turned out to be a vegetarian culinary school in NYC. She spent two decades in the restaurant industry before shifting to bookkeeping for local nonprofits and the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship.

Suze loves knitting, yoga, crafting, gardening, and any other project that lets her work with her hands. Though cooking solo isn’t quite as fun as it once was, she still enjoys cooking with others.

Don grew up in Brooklyn, where community meant everything—neighbors chatting, kids playing in the streets. After teaching high school math and science for many years, he retired and now shares his love of music, leading song circles and bringing music to elder care homes. He also enjoys hiking, biking, reading, and meaningful conversations.

Don and Suze met at a youth hostel in Florida in the late '80s, traveled some together, married in 1993, and welcomed their son Jamie in 1995. They’ve been searching for strong community ties ever since—and are excited to continue that journey with 4th Corner Commons!

Bill is a semi-retired social worker who enjoys the active life of running, backpacking, pickle ball, bike riding and any outdoor adventure that comes his way. Diane is also a social worker assisting low-income folks in the Seattle downtown area. During her much-deserved downtime, Diane enjoys reading a good novel, gardening, and developing her birding skills. Debra is a high school sophomore with her sites on attending an HBCU upon graduation. She is an avid video gamer, loves true crime podcasts and enjoys hanging out with her dogs (Ruby and Ali) when not working at Trader Joe’s or attending school. Family time includes watching favorite movies and tv series, as well as collaborating on the NY Times Spelling Bee, Connections or Wordle.

Living in an intentional community is a long-held dream for the Carmel-Wilson family and Bellingham is the perfect location. The city has provided many wonderful family memories beginning 12 years ago when toddler Debra and Diane met Bill during his Seattle-to-Vancouver bike tour. Having returned many times, they continue to enjoy the natural beauty, small restaurants and outstanding bookstores of Bellingham and nearby Fairhaven. They look forward to joining a community of members from a variety of backgrounds that are invested in knowing and supporting their cohousing neighbors.

Bob grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and studied Mathematics at the University of Notre Dame, later earning a PhD in Queueing Analysis from Ohio State. His career has been anything but traditional—he’s taught math and computer science in the U.S. and Chile, where he also worked in human rights and social services during a time of political transition.

After years in education, Bob pivoted to telecom, spending two decades at AT&T Labs as a network design engineer. (Fun fact: he holds over 40 U.S. patents!) Alongside his career, he’s been deeply involved in nonprofit work, focusing on health, labor, and social justice issues, especially for underserved communities.

Now retired, Bob tutors at a Title I high school in Austin, TX, through the AVID program, and stays active with KOOP Community Radio, where he previously hosted a show called Civil Rights and Wrongs. He also serves organizations supporting immigrants and people living with HIV. For fun Bob loves to hike and swim.

A longtime fan of Bellingham and its sense of community, Bob plans to relocate from Austin and continue his passion for civic engagement and connection. We’re excited to have him exploring with us at 4th Corner Commons!

Michael and Ann have called Bellingham home since 1984. They have three grown kids, all with wonderful partners, and two adorable grandkids—Gemmie (19 months), who lives just two blocks away, and brand-new baby Jules in San Francisco. (Michael insists both grandkids are far cuter than their grandpa!)

Ann grew up in Washington’s Tri-Cities before heading to Syracuse University, where she first got interested in cooperative housing—and met Michael while organizing a rally. She spent her career teaching early childhood and special education, with a lifelong passion for social justice.

Michael grew up in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara before moving east for grad school in special education. After working in Philly and Syracuse (and falling for Ann), he eventually found his way with Ann to Bellingham.

Both retired—Ann from kindergarten teaching and Michael from managing special education programs—they’ve poured their energy into community work. Ann focuses on immigrant and refugee support, choirs, and helping unhoused neighbors. Michael’s been deep in local activism, animal rescue work, and political organizing.

They love Bellingham’s spirit and are excited about building even more community through cohousing.

Both Tia and Paul grew up in large families - Tia was fourth of five, and Paul was fifth of seven. Tia grew up on Cougar Mountain in Issaquah, WA where she track (Fun Fact: Tia still holds a record for the 440 yd dash at 61seconds!), spent a year as an exchange student in Brazil, and studied toxicology at Western Washington University and earned her graduate degree in Environmental Health and Toxicology at University of Washington. Paul grew up all over—Boston, Texas, Ohio. Paul earned a Mechanical Engineering degree, worked on spacesuits, then moved to Seattle for Med School at UW where he met Tia. 

They married in 1991, moved to Salt Lake City for Paul’s residency, welcomed their daughter, and then headed to Kodiak, Alaska, where their son was born. What was supposed to be a two-year stay turned into 23, full of outdoor adventures and tight-knit community life. Tia taught and did fisheries research; Paul was a busy small-town doc.

After a sabbatical in Guatemala and 10 years serving at U.S. embassies abroad, they’re now wrapping up in Zimbabwe. They’ll head back to the Pacific Northwest to reconnect with family, kayak, ski, and garden. Paul hopes to play guitar and work part-time in Alaska; Tia’s dreaming of volunteering, gardening, and getting a dog. They’re excited to begin a new chapter and have enjoyed connecting with 4th Corner Commons’ folks from afar.

Bob and Stephanie moved to Washington from Virginia in 1976, shortly after getting married. Most of their years since have been spent in Newcastle, a suburb east of Seattle, where they raised two sons — one now lives in Bellingham and the other in Boulder, Colorado.

Bob retired after 34 years at Boeing, primarily as an environmental engineer. Stephanie retired after a 33-year career at Bellevue College, where she taught parent education and early childhood education.

Originally from Florida and Virginia, Stephanie also spent two years in Micronesia. Bob grew up in Texas and Louisiana. They met at the University of Utah — she majored in modern dance and he majored in anthropology. Stephanie later earned a Master’s in Education from the University of Washington.

They enjoy brisk walks, biking, and kayaking. They both love listening to music and reading.   Stephanie is an avid knitter and plays in a local ukulele group. Bob likes to tinker in the garage and makes sculptures from driftwood and found objects.

They’re drawn to cohousing for the connection, cooperation, and community it offers.