Wolf Creek Lodge Newsletter

Cohousing in Grass Valley, CA since 2012

April 2024

Note that a home has just become available. See below for details.

This newsletter discusses how Wolf Creek Lodge fulfills its sustainability goals.

Sustainability is an all-inclusive word that encompasses such topics as carbon footprint, green house gas emission, ecofriendly materials, walkability, electrification, and more.

I recommend Suzanne's column at the end of the newsletter. The founding members were committed, enthusiastic, and perhaps a little idealistic. I wonder if we lose some of this as the community evolves.

Thank you Katie McCamant, Richard, Susan, Bob Branstrom, Maureen McN., and Jacque for contributed photos.

Bob Miller - editor,

Suzanne Marriott - commas and columnist.

Home Available

Homes become available only infrequently at Wolf Creek Lodge, but now there is one. It is one bedroom home, on the second floor.

For more details and more pictures follow this link to our website .

Let us know if you are interested so we can put you in touch with the owner.

You can contact us by replying to this newsletter or sending an email to [email protected].

You can also call us and leave a message at:

(800) 558-3775

In the Beginning

Cohousing architects use a collaborative design approach.

Contrast this with the approach of a normal developer. They will work with an architect to design homes targeting a particular market segment. There is no involvement by potential buyers.

A cohousing architect works collaboratively with the founding group.

Chuck Durrett was our architect. You can see more about him at the end of this newsletter. Chuck is both an advocate for cohousing and an advocate for sustainability.

He worked in collaboration with the founding group to design Wolf Creek Lodge. Those founding members report that sustainability was an important factor in design decisions.

In 2011, before construction was completed, McCamant and Durrett Architects were awarded the Governor's Economic and Environmental Leadership Award. (GEELA) for the design of Wolf Creek Lodge.

A group of us travelled to Sacramento to attend the award ceremony. Here Claire, Deleaua, and Katie join Governor Jerry Brown. He was invited to buy a home. Maybe one day.

Building Concept

Chuck and the founders decided to create homes of modest dimensions. They have either one or two bedrooms. Rather than large homes with underutilized spaces, we share a common house and three guest rooms.

All homes are contained within a single three-level structure. This integrated approach is energy efficient. Owners moving from single family homes to a home at Wolf Creek Lodge dramatically reduced the energy needed to heat and cool their homes.

Solar Thermal and Solar Photovoltaic Panels

As originally constructed the lodge had solar thermal panels to preheat the water delivered to the central furnace. In 2017 we added solar panels to generate electricity for the common areas.

Here is a chart from our monitoring system showing the energy generated by the panels each quarter for the years 2017 to the present.

Electric Vehicle Charging Stations



As members bought electric vehicles we recognized that the electrical infrastructure of the lodge would be overloaded by the demand placed by charging the vehicles.



We joined a PG&E program in which they installed level 2 chargers at every parking space. We now have 30 chargers in the open space areas, the detached garages, and the underground garage.

Nine electric vehicles and one electric bike take advantage of the "at home" charging capability.

Jacque charges her RAV4 plug-in hybrid before setting off to her docent duties at the Empire Mine State Historic Park.

Walkability

Members of Wolf Creek Lodge can walk to two supermarkets, many restaurants, a Target store, Starbucks, a gym, and, most importantly, Baskin Robbins, and a Fish and Chip Shop. All of this is within ten minutes.

The most energy-efficient car is the one that remains in its parking space. In fact, three of our members go a step further for the environment – they don't even have a car!

Judith at the Farmers' Market

Next Steps

Our solar thermal panels provide preheated water to our central furnace. This provides both underfloor heating and domestic hot water to all the homes. We all avoid the need to have our own furnace, although we have individual thermostats to control the heating in our homes.

The lodge is now eleven years old. Although a pioneer in its day, expectations have moved on. We use natural gas (methane) for our central furnace, the heating in the common house, the furnace in the spa, our stove in the common kitchen, our clothes driers, and the fireplace in the sitting room.

The federal government is now encouraging us to electrify. This would eliminate emissions due to our burning natural gas. However, to have a positive impact on the environment, the electricity must be generated from clean sources.

So Wolf Creek Lodge needs an electrification plan. This would use heat pumps in place of our existing furnaces and replace our gas stove in the kitchen with an induction stove. Such a plan would show how, as our devices fail, we would replace them.

Such replacements are years in the future We expect heat pump products to mature and local contractors to develop the necessary knowledge and experience.

Wolf Creek Lodge remains a fine example of sustainable living, but we must not rest on our laurels. We need to plan to eventually decarbonize Wolf Creek Lodge.

Getting the Work Done

The Maintenance Team arranges for our fire extinguishers to be regularly maintained. This month they arranged for practical training on how to use an extinguisher. Here Pam extinguishes the flames in the demonstration fire.

Table Tennis

We now have a ping pong table at the lodge. Here Kate drives the ball to Irène while Krista and Maureen W. stand ready.

Gossip Column

J. Robert Oppenheimer visited Wolf Creek Lodge to investigate the feasibility of installing a fusion reactor underneath the petanque court.

After taking some preliminary measurements and taking some soil samples, he joined the rest of the community at the annual Oscar Party in the common house.

Such a reactor would not only decarbonize Wolf Creek Lodge but also all of Grass Valley and Nevada City. Keep in touch for further updates.

In designing and building Wolf Creek Lodge, we worked with our architect, Chuck Durrett, to incorporate sustainability into our plans. Of primary concern was creating both a green structure and a green community. Here is one of our fliers from 2017 that displays our green features. By focusing on these in our marketing campaign, we hoped to reach potential members who shared our concern for the environment. 

GREEN FEATURES of WOLF CREEK LODGE COHOUSING

Passive Solar Heating: Increased interior mass, perimeter foundation insulation, efficient windows, radiant barrier in the roof sheathing, buildings oriented for optimum solar gain.

Passive Cooling: No need for air conditioners in homes, increased interior mass, whole house fans, radiant barriers, ceiling fans, cross ventilation.

Low Electricity Use: Energy efficient lighting, and good daylighting.

In-floor Radiant Heating: One energy efficient system serves the entire Lodge, providing excellent heat with no blowing air and all the noise and particullits that come with it.

Solar hot water provides pre-heat for domestic hot water use.

Healthy Materials:

Bamboo flooring, low toxicity paint and finishes, low 

formaldehyde materials, Marmoleum flooring, Tectum acoustic tiles.

Responsible Water Use: Low water use fixtures and irrigation.

Responsible Forestry: Advanced framing, 25% to 40% less lumber used to build the same square footage which also allows for better insulation.

Air Quality: No wood stoves, non-smoking environment.

Walkable Location: Goods and services (grocery, retail, shopping, restaurants) are right next door, pedestrian/elder friendly site design.

Minimum Impact Possible: Conscientious grading and tree removal, thirty percent of the site left as open space.

Reduced Driving: Studies show that folks who live in cohousing drive 25% less and 

own fewer autos.

Responsible Landscaping: Plantings and new trees, indigenous grasses & drought tolerant plants, minimum water use and other key permaculture attributes.

Mother Lode Inspired Architecture: Preserves heritage, green within context.

Community: Lower consumption, sharing of resources, ongoing commitment to sustainable living.

Our focus on being green began way before 2017. In our community’s second year, the following letter of mine was published in the San Francisco Chronicle’s letters to the editor.

March 3, 2007

Editor – I am heartened to see Pelosi and Boxer working to turn Capitol Hill green! It’s about time Washington took leadership.

           I hope this inspires others to pursue greener lifestyles. One of the best is cohousing. Reduced land usage, efficient energy use, and reduced consumption are built in. It is designed and run by members who live in private houses but share large common areas for meals and activities. Individual homes are smaller than average, but large common areas provide additional living space used daily because members are dedicated to building community.

I plan to live in cohousing myself in a development called Wolf Creek Lodge (www.http://wolfcreeklodge.org). It is for active adults, and about one half of our forested land will remain open space.

Cohousing is built with nontoxic materials from sustainable sources using active and passive energy saving measures such as: corrugated metal roofing, low-e windows, thicker and denser gypsum board and lightweight concrete floors or use of "gypcrete" for thermal mitigation, natural lighting and lighting using CFLs, efficient water use, wet-blown cellulose insulation exceeding state energy use standards (45% recycled cardboard/45% recycled newspaper), and more.

           Cohousing is the intelligent way to live. See www.http://cohousing.org.

Suzanne Marriott

Well, our plans for mother lode inspired corrugated metal roofing was nixed by the Grass Valley powers that be, but everything else materialized. Perhaps you can see how enthusiastic I was, as were all of us, in promoting a green way of living while fostering community. If you share our vision, please consider cohousing as the sustainable alternative to single-family housing.

Cohousing Resources