A long, winding path makes its way through the heart of CoHo Ecovillage in south Corvallis, connecting each of the homes in the small neighborhood.

It's an apt metaphor for the long road the project has taken to completion. It has been more than seven years since the first stirrings of a cohousing community began to whisper through Corvallis, but in the past two weeks, dozens of families have settled into their newly built neighborhood on Crystal Lake Drive.

Coho is made up of 34 homes, a combination of two-, three- and four-bedroom flats and two- and three-bedroom town homes. They cost between $212,000 and $289,000. The community emphasizes shared resources and sustainability, and although each home is self-contained there is a central community building with a kitchen and dining area where group meals can be cooked and eaten, along with a laundry and exercise room, meeting space and a library.

The first development of its kind in Corvallis, CoHo emphasizes diversity and attempts to bring together a variety of ages, ethnicities and abilities into the community. It is considered a model for community housing projects around the nation. By sharing walls, building many units on a small eight-acre campus and using sustainable building practices, CoHo has attracted residents who are concerned about their impact on the environment.

From the beginning, the project has operated on the principal of consensus-making, with all residents encouraged to participate in community decision-making. This approach has been used throughout the years as CoHo has gone from an idea to a reality.

Among the challenges faced by CoHo organizers was finding the right property on which to build the community, and then getting that property annexed into the city, which happened in 2004. Construction has taken a year.

For Bruce and Judy Hecht, who have been behind the idea since the beginning, moving into a community where they've already established a strong relationship with their new neighbors is a priceless experience.

On Monday morning, as Bruce Hecht made his way from the bicycle shed at CoHo, he passed by a small boy on his bike. The boy looked up and cocked his head.

"Hey Bruce, where ya going?" the boy shouted.

Hecht knows the name of every one of the 20 kids and 50 or so adults who have just moved in, because CoHo residents have been interacting with each other for several years as the complex was being planned and built. Even before moving into their new homes, they had already established friendships with their neighbors.

"Now we're just going to settle in," Hecht said. "There are a lot of fun things to do."

At one end of the neighborhood, daycare provider Ami Franz watched over two of her young charges, who were more interested in helping her unpack boxes than in playing with a pile of building blocks. Franz said she has always dreamed of communal living and was excited to become a part of CoHo.

"I know everybody here more than I've known anybody in any other neighborhood," she said.

Just down the path, Meredith Wade was helping her 5-year-old son Mason learn to skateboard. Wade and her family moved to CoHo from the Bay Area. She said knowing that she has supportive neighbors and friends all around her was an appealing factor. She also likes the number of young people in the neighborhood.

"There's a big contingent of kindergartners and lower-aged kids," she said.

For empty-nesters Dennis Clark and Juva DuBoise, CoHo provided a chance to downsize their lifestyle while still remaining social. They first got interested in CoHo four years ago, not knowing how many hurdles lay ahead.

"I don't think we knew how long it was going to take when we started," he said. Now that they've moved in, "It's a little surreal after so much time."

A few houses down from the communal kitchen, where new neighbors will join for group dinners at least once a week, is a home where three women will be sharing a brightly colored living space together with a caregiver. The women all have disabilities and have either been living with parents or in assisted facilities for most of their lives. This will be the first time they've been integrated into a larger community.

"We looked for this kind of place for Bonnie when she was 4," said her mother, Pam Wald, who was helping her daughter, now 33, move into her new home at CoHo.

Pam pulled out Bonnie's wall calendar to show where she had written in each box for the first week of November the words "New House."

"Ben and I are more anxious than she is," Pam said. "She's been ready for quite a while."

Colleen Dyrud stopped in to check on the paint job in the house's four bedrooms. She donated the money to pay for the paint, and each resident picked out her own room color. She poked her head into Bonnie's room and saw the bright blue color.

"It looks like the inside of a robin's egg," she exclaimed.

Dyrud first heard about CoHo a few years ago at a booth at da Vinci Days. She was intrigued with the idea, but was living in Portland at the time. Last year, she had the opportunity to move back to her hometown of Corvallis, and got on the waiting list. She was relieved when she learned she'd have the chance to purchase a home.

"I like the idea of people intentionally building their lives so that neighbors are part of their lives," she said. "I also like CoHo's vision and values of sustainability and leaving a light footstep."

Richard Hervey, his wife, Valerie, and his 16-year-old daughter, Kehala, are living out of an apartment until they get their new home move-in ready. Hervey first heard about CoHo seven years ago, and although he liked the idea, he was doubtful it would ever come to fruition.

"I was impressed, but I looked around and thought 'This is a bunch of hippies, it will never get there,'" he said.

Now, he is celebrating the thriving community that made CoHo happen through years of hard work. He said he knows the names of all the humans living in his new neighborhood, and is now starting on their pets.

"I'm learning the dogs," he said. "I haven't started on the cats."