Cohousing for Sale – Winter Morning in Tucson

Taken from My Bedroom Balcony This Morning – Cohousing for Sale!

Tucson Winter Weather

50 degrees this morning in Tucson.  It rained last night – snowed on the Santa.  Can you see the dusting of snow?

We get the most rain here in the Sonoran desert in later summer and mid winter.  Summer is the most exciting, with lots of thunder, lightening and flash floods.

There are normally dry arroyos criss-crossing the desert that fill with raging rivers during flash floods.

As a kid, we used to race ahead of the flood on dirt bikes.  Looking behind I’d see a boiling mud-colored wave of frothy water, carrying branches and debris.  Not something I’d ever advise!

But back to winter.  In case you’ve never spent much time in Tucson in the winter, in my mind, it’s paradise!

Cool nights and mornings.  Sometimes it dips a little below freezing.

Just often enough for us to be able to grow some of the stone fruits like peaches, plums, almonds.

The big winter difference here in the Tucson desert, is that most days are sunny and it warms up to the 70s during the day.

I’ve gone on several hikes in the last two months – December and January.  I’ve worn shorts, a tank top, vest and jacket. After a few minutes of warming up, I was fine without the jacket.  I pass heartier  hikers in shorts and t-shirts, no jacket at all.

And often I’ll sit on my sunny, warm front porch for lunch, wearing as little as I can get away with in a public front porch!

Summer in Tucson

Now, in summer, it’s the reverse.  It’s comfortable in the morning and evening.  Great for dinners outdoors, gardening, hiking, sports.

And in the middle of the day, it’s rather blistering hot. The kind of dry heat that keeps us searching for those shade trees in parking lots and encourages us to put up a window shade to keep the car interior from reaching the boiling point.

In Tucson, we drink lots of water, use lip balm and hand lotion liberally.

So summer is a time for getting up early, before the sun.  Winter, it’s nice to sleep in until the sun comes up.

I think the weather is Tucson is just about perfect – but shhh – don’t tell, or too many will move here.

If you’re looking for cohousing for sale, Tucson and Milagro just might be your spot.

How to Evaluate Cohousing for Sale

Cohousing for Sale – How to Find a Cohousing Fit for You

If you’re looking for cohousing for sale, there are many things to ask about when you call or visit a cohousing community.

Since living in cohousing is a bigger commitment than simply buying a home, it’s important to have as good an idea as possible of what you’re buying into.

This guide is intended to help you evaluate cohousing for sale, to find the best fit for you and for your family.

I have lived in cohousing for the last ten years. First in Sonora Cohousing, then in Milagro Cohousing, both in Tucson, Arizona. I studied and visited cohousing for ten years before that.

I’ll share some of what I’ve learned here, to help you evaluate cohousing communities and especially cohousing for sale.

When you choose to live in cohousing, you are buying much more than just a house. You are choosing to live in close proximity to others that you will know.

What follows are some of the important things you’ll want to ask about when you visit a cohousing community. I’ve given you a list of questions to ask.

In addition to knowing each other, here are some other elements of cohousing that are different from our typical living arrangements.

• You’ll know all your neighbors by name, and their children, their pets and their frequent visitors.
• Together, you’ll make financial decisions that will have a direct impact on your bank account.
• No one is in charge. Jointly, you’ll make decisions and manage your community. This includes rules and regulations, financial decisions, maintenance, and much more.
• Community meetings and committee meetings and community work will take up some or a lot of your time – it’s your choice.
• Communication, decision-making, conflict-resolution are likely to become much more important to you than in the past.

Decision-Making – What form of decision-making does your cohousing community use? (Most use a consensus style of decision-making, but there will be differences in how it works.)

Conflict Resolution – How are conflicts resolved? How does the community help resolve conflicts?

Demographics – How many residents? What is the age span of residents? How many children? How many elders? How many adult singles? Families?

Work – How does work get done? Do you do things to make getting the work done fair?

Amenities & Facilities – What are the community amenities and facilities? Are more planned? How are they maintained and financed?

Construction – What type of construction was used for the homes and common structures? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this?

Neighborhood Design – How does the neighborhood design support community? How many homes? How much property total? How much is jointly owned?

Surrounding Neighborhood – What is the surrounding neighborhood like? What’s the safety, walkability, proximity to shopping, noise, traffic, etc?

Common Meals – How often do you you have common meals? What do they cost? What type of food is served (organic, vegetarian, gluten-free)?

Finances – What are the monthly HOA fees? Have there been other assessments? Are there other costs?

Community Culture – How would you describe your community culture?

Villages – Are there groups or villages within the community? Groups that meet for common interest? Book study, families with young children, meditation, eating circles?

Mission and Values – What are the core mission and values that have been agreed on? Have they been revised since the building was completed?

Social – What happens in your community? What types of community events do you have? How much are community – vs individually planned. What goes on around here? How noisy is it?

Best & Worst – What is the best thing about living here?  What’s the most challenging? How is the community working to grow and improve?

Well, that’s enough! Even though it’s not everything. I hope this helps you on your quest for cohousing for sale.

Please make a comment below if this helped you or if you have other suggestions.

Tucson Green Homes – Eco Green Housing Features

Watch this video to learn more about the eco green housing features  of these Tucson green homes in Milagro Cohousing.

This is a short video I made to give you a quick overview of most of the green housing features I could think of here in Milagro.

The video covers water conservation and water harvesting.  You’ll get a glimpse of our wetlands and black and gray water systems.

You’ll see how we heat our home and pool water with solar on the roofs – which works really well in Tucson, with all our sun.

I cover some of the permaculture features of our solar orientation and thermal mass of the adobe walls.

Well, enough about what it’s about – must watch the darn video.

Enjoy!

And I invite your feedback below.  Tell me what you think.  Tell me if you learned anything.

Natalie

Cohousing for Sale – Kitchen Tour

Looking for cohousing for sale?

Here’s the first of several videos that will give you a detailed tour of my green housing for sale.  This first video is from the sidewalk outside my house, under my super spiffy green all-season porch covering, into my home and all through the kitchen. Enjoy!

Detailed Kitchen Tour

Cohousing Living – Sunday Morning at Milagro Cohousing

Cohousing Living – Cohousing for Sale at Milagro Cohousing Tucson

This morning was our monthly work day here in this Tucson cohousing. I got out a little late and didn’t think of doing any filming until even later, but I got some action on film. One characteristic of cohousing living, or of most green living communities is that the people do much of the work.  Here at Milagro Cohousing, we have one work day (actually morning) per month (in addition to various committees and all other sorts of “work”).

Working together is part of community living, whether it’s a city ecovillage or one of the other green living communities. And it you want sustainable cohousing, I’d say the residents need to put in some of what we used to call “sweat equity.”

Here’s how my morning went in our cohousing home:

9:00 am Talked to Tim, Frank and Savannah, who were installing a new garden tub in Julie’s front basin, just to the east of my house.  They needed a level, so I loaned them mine.  I also gave them a big bag of potting soil I won’t be using, since I’m selling my house.  They had the Happy Car (our community electric car) half in Julie’s basin.  I was wondering if they’d be able to get it back out.  (They did, but in the process they crushed one  of Julie’s solar path lights.  Bummer.)

9:20 Bumped into Patricia.  We walked together to the Desert Broom plants she had identified that needed to be removed.  (Desert Broom is a native shrub that we’re keeping out of the community, or it will take over.)  As we were walking, we discussed our plans for the day.  Patricia is going to an IONS event this afternoon.  I’m offering a workshop for community members on energy movements to boost the immune system and prevent getting the flu (or from getting any illness).

9:30 Pulled out one Desert Broom; the others need soaking.

9:45 The three of us ran into Vladan, who is the third cook, with Patricia and me, for the common meal next Saturday night.  We had an impromptu sidewalk meeting and decided on our meal.  We’re having beef stew and a vegan version, Vladan’s famous cornbread, green salad and Vladan’s also soon-to-be-famous baklava.  That was a fortuatous sidewalk meeting.

Vladan also mentioned that he’ll be showing the documentary he just completed, next Sunday in our common house.  He is a photojournalist and independent film-maker and he recently completed, “Tibetan Trinity: Life, Death, Time.”  You can read more about the movie here

Sidebar – The Weather. Even thought it’s November 15, it was warm and sunny.  I started out with a light jacket and ended up in a t-shirt.  My front door is open now, letting in the warm desert air.

10:00 Soaked and pulled another Desert Broom while enjoying the guitar-playing and singing of Daniel, who was watching his kids, Civana and Kalil at the swingset.

10:15 I pulled the grass that’s invading the mulched garden area surrounding our grassy circle.  I’ve taken this project on as my personal mission – to keep that area grass-free.  It’s a tough job, since grass spreads by underground runners. But it’s satisfying work.

10:30 Walked to the wetlands to see if any weeds needed to be pulled there.  I had remember seeing an exotic Lantana growing in the overflow basin of the wetlands.  I went to see if it was still there – nope, someone had pulled it.

10:40 Remembered I could be making a movie of our work day, another cohousing video!  So I returned home for my Flip, just in time to catch Tim, Savannah and Frank packing up their tools and driving the Happy Car back to the parking lot.  That’s when I began the movie you see above.

11:00 Walked to the common house to see how many have signed up for Pie Night tonight, so I know how big to make my contributions.  I’m making something like Shepard’s pie and blueberry cobbler.  It’s a smallish group, so I won’t make too much.  But, if it’s a typical pot luck, extra people will also show up.

11:10 Saw Stephanie watering the community veggie garden.  Told her about the leak I found in the irrigation apparatus that waters our potted herb garden.  The pots are next to the common house.  Now she understood why she kept finding the faucet turned off.  That’s bad news for the herb garden.

There you have it.  One morning of cohousing living in Milagro Cohousing Tucson.

Listing Green Homes Tucson – All the Videos

Here, on one page are all the videos I’ve made of this listing of green homes in Tucson.  I’ve done this to help make blog navigation a little easier.  Then you’ll know you haven’t missed any videos, because they’ll all be here on this same page.

If you’re looking for cohousing for sale, especially if you’re looking for ecovillage cohousing or a city ecovillage, I think you’ll want to look into Milagro Cohousing Tucson.  We are one of the more sustainable cohousing developments.

Video #7: Kitchen Tour – Cohousing for Sale

Video #6: Sunday Morning Workday – Cohousing Home

Video #5: Halloween in Sustainable Cohousing

Video #4: Ecovillage Cohousing – My 35 Acres

Video #3: West Side of Milagro Cohousing Tour

Video #2: Green Front Porch Design

Video #1: Cohousing Home – Short House Tour

Ecovillage Cohousing Halloween

Get a glimpse of the people who live in this ecovillage cohousing – Milagro Cohousing.

Relative to the other seven Halloweens we’ve had in our cohousing home, this one was kinda tame, but fun and festive all the same. One of the advantages of living near others for years and decades is that you get to appreciate the way life changes and the ways it stays the same.

Some years someone or someones may have a lot of energy for certain holidays or celebrations. Then we have big parties with lots of extra friends and family invited. Other years we’re just a little laid back.

One factor that makes big changes in cohousing is the current population of children.

Right now, we’re a little low on kids.

Jnana is in Vermont living with her father for a couple of months. Carolina just went off to college. Will is at boarding school in California to study dance. And the Paxton family (with five wonderful kids!) recently moved to NYC.

But that can all change nearly overnight. Maybe a family with kids will buy my house!

For our Halloween party, I “told fortunes” at the end of the evening. I say that in quotes because what I really did is use EFT tapping with folks to help them reach a more calm and resourceful space to tell their own fortune. It was fun, as it always is.

Milagro Cohousing Tucson is an example of ecovillage cohousing. It’s an example of green residential housing where you know your neighbors.

Cohousing Home – Eco Green Housing Short Video

Short Video Tour

This is a quick tour of my cohousing home. I made this so you could see more details of the inside of the house. This house and Milagro Cohousing are great examples of eco green housing in a city ecovillage. This will give you a quick look at an example of green housing for sale in Tucson.

Milagro Cohousing Tucson is one of the ecovillage communities that combines the principals of community and sustainability.

There are several Tucson communities moving in the direction of sustainable cohousing. Tucson cohousing is leading the country in green residential housing.

Home Construction

The construction at Milagro is high quality, beautiful and built to last. Brick adobe is expensive to build with, but the durability, energy-savings, comfort and beauty make it worth the price. I have added many quality touches throughout the house.

Examples include concrete countertops, cherry cabinets, custom kitchen shelving and window-boxes, custom-made spiral rebar shelf brackets, quality bathroom fixtures, energy-saving appliances, adjustable custom closet interiors.

Close to Downtown – But Quiet

Surrounded by natural desert with panoramic mountain, desert and city views, Milagro is unique among ecovillage cohousing developments. The permaculture design of passive rainwater harvesting and the recycling of all water through a wetlands system has created a lush oasis in the desert – without using extra water!

Those wanting to be near downtown and close to shopping and entertainment, but away from the noise and pollution of the city will appreciate the natural setting. The design, landscaping and location are beautiful, quiet and surrounded by natural desert.

If you’re looking for a cohousing home, eco green housing or Tucson cohousing, I hope you’ll consider Milagro Cohousing.

For Sale: Green Homes Tucson – West Side Tour

Green Housing for Sale – Milagro Cohousing Tucson

In this video, I’m taking you on a tour of the west end of the Milagro townhomes.  My townhouse is for sale and I wanted to give folks who are out of town a good look of the homes, the area and the Milagro community. The address of the house for sale is 3021 N. Gaia Place, Tucson, AZ 85745.

Are you looking for Tucson townhouses for sale?  Milagro Cohousing is unique among the Tucson green homes.  It is more than just a group of townhouses.  It is considered one of the ecovillage communities and one of the more sustainable cohousing developments.

Cohousing for Sale – Common Meals

Looking for cohousing for sale? Then I’m sure you know about the…

…Importance of Common Meals

Your typical Tucson townhome doesn’t have “common meals.”  The opportunity to eat together regularly is one of the things that makes cohousing different from the typical townhouse or neighborhood.

Common Meals are part of the cohousing "glue."

In Milagro, we have one common meal a week.  It’s on either a Saturday or Sunday night.  We take turns cooking – Sara makes a new cooking calendar four times a year.

That means that each of us is on a cooking team once every three months.

Most cooking teams are made up of three people; some have four.  Some of the teams stay the same and some changes.  It’s all up to Sara and people can make requests for cooking partners or other arrangements.

The meals are always optional.  We charge $6 per adult and I think kids are half that.  Most meals have around 20-25 people.  But if the meal sounds super-delicious, or entertainment is also offered, 35 or 40 may sign up.

The last huge meal we had was the one Jeannette and David cooked up.  They made Balinese food, lined Elizabeth up to do a Balinese dance and showed slides of Bali after the meal.

The common house was packed for that one.

Tucson Communities - Milagro Halloween Party

This weekend, we’re having a ghoulish potluck for Halloween night.

People typically make disgusting things like deviled eggs that look like eyeballs, wormy pasta, bloody finger-like digits and who knows what other repulsive food.

I secretly admit that sometimes I eat before going to this meal.  It’s not too appetizing for me.  Can’t help it.  I like good food.

But I will enjoy the party after – I’m doing fortune telling.

But I think I got off track.  I was supposed to be talking about the importance of common meals.  They’re important because the solidify the bond between us.  It helps make being neighbors more than just living near each other.  It helps us get to know and appreciate each other.  It helps build relationships, friendships.  When people eat and laugh together, they usually care more about each other.

So I believe that common meals help cohousing be a kinder, friendlier place to live.

Solar Oven

Al Nichols made a large Solar oven especially for Milagro.

He donated it as a memorial to Wayne Moody, our very special and much missed Project Manager.

Several households can cook in the solar oven at the same time. It tracks with the sun from energy from a pv panel.

We’ve cooked home-grown squash, beans, lasagna, soups, stews and casseroles in our community solar oven.

Celebrations

Jeannette was the "murderer" in our last murder mystery dinner

We celebrate every holiday here at Milagro. The festivities are always optional – and always fun. Friends and families are always invited to join in.

Last year we had a community-wide mystery dinner. Everyone attending had a role to play. That’s when we learned how many repressed actors we have living among us! Jeannette, dressed as a man, was the murderer.

We usually celebrate the Solstice and Equinox days with a ritual that one of our residents dreams up.

Fun for kids and adults, this often includes walking our labyrinth, singing, dressing for the occasion, drumming and sometimes tossing descriptions of what we no longer want into a ceremonial fire.

If you’re looking for green housing for sale, or a Tucson townhome, you might want to consider Milagro.  Eating together is one of the pleasures of living here.

Sustainable Cohousing – Green Front Porch

Sustainable Cohousing – For Sale Green Homes Tucson

If you’re looking for a green Tucson townhome, you may want to take a look at mine.  I’m making a series of videos to show you the very special features of Milagro Cohousing Tucson.

My All Season Front Porch

For six years I was appreciating my sunny and warm winter porch and cursing my roasting and scalding summer porch.  Other than planting a deciduous tree next to the porch (I did that too), I couldn’t imagine a workable solution.

I was imagining putting up a structure every summer and taking it down every winter.  It’s easy for me to imagine doing something like that, but in reality I’m pretty lazy.

Then one evening, I saw a much smaller version on David and Jeannette’s back porch.  The idea for my nifty front porch was born.

David Bygott - the designer and builder of my spiffy front porch structure

I’m really proud of my front porch.  It meets my needs perfectly.  It looks attractive, is easy to maintain and operate,  is a simple and elegant design, serves multiple purposes, works with nature and is highly functional.

What more could you want from anything, I ask.

And I want to give the proper credit.  David Bygott, one of our charming, talented and irreplaceable Milagro residents designed and built my porch.

It’s a simple and elegant design.  It the overhead structure hooks to the adobe walls of my townhouse and to upright wooden posts.

This is just one green feature of my Tucson townhome in Milagro Cohousing Tucson, where we are working to become sustainable cohousing.

Cohousing for Sale – Milagro Cohousing Preserve

Cohousing for Sale – Tucson Mountains Homes for Sale

This video shows you the view from my master bedroom balcony, over the 35 acre preserve that’s part of the property of Milagro Cohousing Tucson.

The video starts out facing west and onto the adjoining neighbor’s balcony.  You’ll see most of Milagro’s protected 35 acre preserve as the camera pans around from west to north to east.  You’ll get a glimpse of the Milagro pool, common house and the metal roofs of the nearby Milagro buildings.

I think this preserve is one of the very best things about Milagro and about my house in particular.

You can be confident that you will never have a neighbor to the north.  My Tucson townhome comes with the vast view of the natural Sonoran desert, the Santa Catalina mountains and the western part of the city of Tucson.

At night you’ll hear coyotes and owls.  A troop of javalinas passes by often (that’s why we built a critter fence – to keep the javalinas from eating our gardens!).

I’ve awakened at night to see a Great-Horned owl sitting on the corner post of the bedroom balcony, next to where I stood making this video.  In the daytime, there is often a hawk sitting on the back porch fence.

Are you looking for cohousing for sale?  If you’re attracted to the southwest, you might consider this cohousing for sale in Milagro Cohousing Tucson.

Green Housing for Sale – Water in the Desert

Here’s Milagro’s green housing for sale.  If you’re looking for green housing in the desert, you must consider water.  Water use.  Water conservation.  Water harvesting.  Water recycling.

Even though we, at Milagro Cohousing Tucson are not totally sustainable cohousing, we’re working toward it.  Here are some of the things we do with water.

Metal roofs and gutters send rainwater to planted basins.

Water Harvesting

Milagro is like a city ecovillage and has many green features built into our design.

One of my favorites is passive rainwater harvesting.  It’s simple.  It requires almost zero maintenance.  And it has helped us create a desert oasis.

Our roofs are metal with gutters and down-spouts channeling rainwater into planted basins. This way all the rains that falls on our homes, stays right here.

This is the most simple and easily sustainable method of passive rain water harvesting. Many of our residents have also installed water harvesting cisterns to save rainwater for dryer months.  You see, in Tucson most of our rain falls in two short bursts – late summer and mid-winter.

Wastewater Recycling
Instead of being hooked up to the city sewer system, Milagro has constructed it’s own black water and grey water recycling system.

After passing through settling tanks, our used water goes into a wetlands system, in which we hand-planted native bulrushes.

(Sidebar:  I still remember how careful we were to protect ourselves from the potentially pathogenic blackwater! We wore rubber gloves, washable shoes and washed all our tools after planting.  Well, we all survived.)

The microbes on the roots and surrounding gravel clean up and transform the waste water. At this point it’s considered gray water.  Our transformed water is then pumped, via an underground drip system, into the landscaped areas in the interior of the community.

Irrigating with Gray Water

The fronts of the houses face each other and there’s a meandering sidewalk spanning the length of the community.  Nearly all the planted basins have this wastewater drip system a foot or more underground.  When the tank at the wetlands gets full, the pump comes on and the water is pumped uphill to the planted basins in front of our homes.

Until we get the whole system hooked up to computers and automated, Holly and Jackie, and other helpers, have been manually switching valves so that the basins take turns getting watered.

All this enables us to have lush landscaping without using much extra water.  We only provide city water to shrubs and trees when they’re just planted, or if they’re not on the wastewater system.

This wastewater recycling system makes Milagro Cohousing Tucson one of the more sustainable cohousing developments.

I used a mulch layering system and EM composted kitchen waste to help the soil become rich and healthy.

Oasis in the Desert

We truly have created an oasis in the desert. You must come see us to see how lush the vegetation is within our eco green housing.

In addition to many vegetable gardens, we are growing at least 10 kinds of fruit trees: 3 kinds of figs, plums, peaches, almonds, lemons, oranges, grapefruit, jujubes and pomegranates.

These are some of the elements you’ll want to look for in green housing for sale.

Enhancing the Soil

Compositing and EM – Many Milagro residents compost their kitchen waste using traditional composting or composting all waste (even animal products) using the EM – Effective Microorganisms process, using Bokashi.

Three households offer composting for the community.

Green Communities USA

We are investigating ways to become a more sustainable cohousing community by raising chickens, starting in private backyards, as we have to protect our chicks from our desert friends and neighbors – coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions, owls and hawks.

Milagro Cohousing Tucson is one community that occasionally has green housing for sale.  At the moment, my house is the only listing of green housing for sale in Tucson – in Milagro.  I’m at 3021 N. Gaia Place, Tucson, AZ 85745.  Come check out our nearly sustainable cohousing.

Listing Green Homes Tucson – Innovative Home Tour

Solar Green Cohousing for Sale

Sustainable Cohousing in Innovative Home Tour

We are listing green homes in Tucson in Milagro Cohousing Tucson.  3021 N. Gaia Place, Tucson, AZ 85745 is available and is on the tour.

On Sunday, November 1, 2009, Milagro Cohousing Tucson is one of the showcased stops on the Tucson Innovative Home Tour.

Milagro won the First Place Award for Best Planned Community in Arizona from Arizona Planners Association.

We are the largest adobe construction project in the State of Arizona.

Here is how the Innovative Home tour folks describe Cohousing:

“Co-Housing is an intentional community where people join together to buy land, plan the development, own their own house but share in the ownership of land, common buildings and equipment. It makes possible a community experience that has been lost over time in much of America. Also, through joint ownership and sharing, members can have much greater resources than they might by themselves.

Tucson Cohousing - working together in the building phase

The members of this particular community share a strong environmental interest and commitment. They are seeking to create “a community in balance with nature.” They have built a residential development of 28 townhouses clustered on 8 acres in a parcel of 43 acres in the Tucson Mountain foothills. It has a pedestrian core with peripheral parking. Features include passive solar design with thermal mass construction using pressed adobe, plus solar water heating.

A very special wetlands system treats and recycles all wastewater. Landscape design follows permaculture principles and practices, leaving most of the land in its natural state, roof rainwater catchment flowing into cisterns, vegetated basins and organic gardens, paving of all roads and parking with a permeable surface and many other environmentally sound practices. It also has a 3400 sq ft common house, pool, playgrounds, meditation area and nature trails.”

We hope you’ll visit this Sunday on the Innovative Homes Tour and visit this very special listing of green homes in Tucson.

Selling Green Homes in Tucson – Solar

Cohousing for Sale – Green Housing for Sale

Actually, at the moment, instead of selling green homes in Tucson, we are just selling one.  We have one Tucson townhome for sale in Milagro Cohousing.

And it’s my lovely Tucson townhome.  (If you’re wondering why I’m selling, check out the About page.)

Milagro used green building concepts in the design of our homes, parking lot, driveway, landscaping and more. Our community is truly a showcase example of Here is a glimpse of some of the elements that make Milagro cohousing a  city ecovillage, starting with our solar orientation and thermal mass:

Smart Solar Orientation and Thermal Mass

Our floors are concrete, with a colored stain mixed in the concrete.  Along with the extra-large south-facing windows that let in winter sunlight, this adds to the natural winter heating of our homes.

Our Tucson townhouses are all oriented north-south, with nearly all the windows facing north or south.  The east-west windows have generous overhangs.  This reduces summer heating of the houses and helps keep us comfortable with the temperature and with our cooling bills.
The slant and size of the north-facing window overhangs allow the winter sun to warm the adobe and enter our oversized windows to warm the concrete floors, while shading our homes in the hot summer months.

Solar Green Housing

Passive solar water heaters on our roofs take advantage of Tucson’s exceptionally sunny, superb weather.

Passive solar water heaters also heat our community pool in fall and spring.

If you want to know who’s selling green homes in Tucson, come visit Milagro Cohousing.