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A NeuroHome by the river · Cathlamet, Washington

NeuroHome

Come in. The light is coming through the firs and bouncing off the river, and there are candles going in every room.

This is Isha Snow's (she/they) home, one of the units being built at the NeuroHomes Community in Washington state.

The window

Out the front windowMorning light through tall firs on either side of the window. Beyond them the Columbia River runs wide and grey-blue, flecked with sun. On the left the steel truss of the Julia Butler Hansen Bridge humps over the channel to Puget Island, a long flat green island with a barn and a few trees. The little county ferry is crossing toward Westport. Downriver on the right, Redmen Hall stands white on its hill above Skamokawa, with its bell tower. Low Oregon hills line the far shore.

Out past the firs, the Julia Butler Hansen Bridge crosses to Puget Island, the county ferry heads over to Westport, and downriver at Skamokawa, Redmen Hall watches from its hill.

The creativity corner

Everything I've made, or am still making.

Books

Autism in America

Autistic Standpoint Theory

Spirolateral Productions, 2025, under a Creative Commons licence.

Writing

Substack

@ishasnow on Substack

Academic

ORCID 0009-0002-7819-037X

Podcast

Autistic Standpoint Theory

My series on the Autistic Culture Podcast Network.

  • Also on Acast
  • Also on Acast

Talk show

Autistic Standpoint Theory the Talkshow

A Spirolateral Productions show made in partnership with ACPN, rooted in the idea that autistic people are not subjects to be studied, but human lives to be lived, and the experts on our own lived experiences.

Film

Documentaries

Why Doesn't She Just Leave?, forthcoming, 2026.

The desk

An old wooden radio on the desk

What's on the radio. Each one opens in Spotify, and nothing plays until you choose it.

Instruments

Within reach of the desk:

  • hand drums
  • hammered dulcimer
  • guitar
  • keyboards
  • penny whistles
  • violin
  • bodhrán, the Irish frame drum
  • bagpipes

The bookshelf

My favourites, the ones I keep going back to.

  • American GodsNeil Gaiman
  • Bulfinch's MythologyThomas Bulfinch
  • OtherearthJason Segel and Kirsten Miller
  • Going to Pieces Without Falling ApartMark Epstein
  • 1491Charles C. Mann
  • OriginJessica Khoury
  • Shadows of Forgotten AncestorsCarl Sagan and Ann Druyan
  • The Chalice and the BladeRiane Eisler
  • IllusionsRichard Bach
  • Love & SurvivalDean Ornish
  • RabbitsTerry Miles
  • Walden TwoB.F. Skinner
  • The Woman with the Alabaster JarMargaret Starbird
  • Venus and AphroditeBettany Hughes
  • The Pleasure of Finding Things OutRichard P. Feynman
  • Outer EarthRob Boffard
  • The Developing MindDaniel J. Siegel
  • I Am Because You AreJacob Lief with Andrea Thompson
  • The Lessons of HistoryWill and Ariel Durant
  • The End of the World NewsAnthony Burgess
  • And Another Thing...Eoin Colfer
  • ChaosJames Gleick
  • Be Not Afraid of LoveMimi Zhu
  • Be Here NowRam Dass
  • Anti-OedipusGilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari
  • The Hero with a Thousand FacesJoseph Campbell

The art on the walls

Collages I've made, cut from old magazines and maps and laid over poured paint.

Some pieces are for sale, and I take commissions. For prices or to ask about a piece, write to me at isha@neurohomes.org.

Small collage on a lilac and blue marbled ground. A black panel scattered with cartoon eyes holds the words Wish you were here in orange script, red and white stripes, two cut-out figures in straw hats, and a strip reading the national pastime. The word COLONY runs down both sides, and a bee sits in the top corner.
Wish You Were HereCollage on acrylic pour
Round collage on a teal marbled ground. Old road maps of the Pacific Northwest, a historic photograph of two Indigenous women, a relief map of Alaska, and a man dressed as a pirate surrounded by the word Colony, over and over. Cut-out phrases include History course, Keep moving, America!, the real treasure, A cradle of civilization, and It comes with the territory. Bees are scattered across it.
History CourseCollage on acrylic pour
Collage on a pale pink ground. A stylised woman with long dark hair lifts a glass toward a red flower, beside a tall candle, a clock and a small bird. Cut-out phrases include The Survivor, Down came the walls, be the answer, let your heart be touched forever, and love it or lose it.
The SurvivorCollage on acrylic pour
Collage on a sky-blue canvas. A woman shields her eyes, a bride from the 1950s stands in white, and a woman in a yoga pose balances on a banana. Cut-out phrases include Be a miracle worker, Made to be walked on!, a world where washday never ends, do-everything, and Women deserve lots of credit.
Be a Miracle WorkerCollage on acrylic pour
Canvas painted in swirling ocean blues, with a large blue brain at the centre and a skydiver falling above it. Cut-out words read A possible world and We're learning, with a Carl Sagan line about us being a way for the cosmos to know itself.
A Possible WorldCollage on acrylic pour
Canvas in swirling turquoise and blue. Several hands rest on top of one another beneath the word Grace. Other pieces read Cosmic world of tomorrow and Battling the odds, with a Baruch Spinoza line saying minds are conquered by love and high-mindedness, not force.
Cosmic World of TomorrowCollage on acrylic pour

Outside the door

The garden and the bee yard Raised garden beds full of greens and flowers on the left. On the right, two white-and-honey beehives stand on a low stand, each a stack of wooden boxes with a lid, and a few bees drift between the hives and the flowers. A jar of honey sits on a stump.

Step out and there's the garden, and past it the bee yard. There's usually a jar of honey on the stump.

Good morning. How are you doing? Well, thanks.

Every front door here opens onto shared green space, with a porch in between so you can stop, watch the path, and say hello when you're ready.

The map by the door

The map by the doorA hand-drawn plan of the NeuroHomes village, titled NeuroHomes in the top left corner and laid out like a neuron. The commons buildings and a garden sit in the middle inside a ring path. Five short paths reach out from the ring like dendrites, each ending in a cluster of five tiny homes: two facing pairs with a fifth home at the back in the middle. A road runs down from the ring to the entrance building, with the NeuroBloom building beside it. The second home in the cluster at the upper left is marked: you are here.gardencommonsentranceNeuroBloomservicesyou are hereNeuroHomes

25 tiny homes in five clusters around a shared commons, laid out like a neuron. Each cluster is two facing pairs with a fifth home at the back. This house is the second home on the upper left branch.

How the house is built

From the NeuroHomes Community Design Standards.

no fluorescent lightCRI 90+, 2700K to 3500Kwalls STC 55+floors IIC 55+zero-VOC, 30-day air-outown ERV, MERV-13+no carpetstep-free

The community around it

This home is one of 25 at the NeuroHomes Community. Here is what the rest of the village shares.

The commons

Shared buildings at the centre, split into rooms for gathering and quiet retreat rooms that can never be booked for a group event.

NeuroBloom

A neuro-affirming services hub on campus, run by NeuroBloom Center under a formal partnership. Plans include counselling, speech and communication support, adaptive fitness and a sensory gym, holistic wellness care, and a community café.

Peer support

A paid peer support network, weekly community planning with a different facilitator each time, and peer help finding a way through benefits, healthcare and government systems.

A path to self-sufficiency

NeuroHomes is working toward paid roles within the community and placements with local employers, as opportunities allow. Hours are planned with care so that work doesn't put anyone's SSI at risk.

The garden

Food garden beds in the commons, native plantings, and open lawns with natural edges.

Paths and nooks

Wide, level, step-free paths, with benches, shaded alcoves and sheltered sensory nooks along the way. Outdoor lights are shielded for dark skies.

A home to keep

Permanent supportive housing, run on Housing First principles. Residents are tenants with full tenancy rights. This is a home, and not a clinical facility.

Credits

HOW LOUD DO YOU WANT IT?

Starts wherever your device says. Nothing moves, flashes, or plays until you say so.

Job marker — a jar of honey, set down on the floor

You have found a job marker. The Adventurer’s Guild is a shopfront on the street, and it posts jobs that send you round these rooms. Take the code below to its board and that job is done. Nothing here is scored, nothing expires, and one is a perfectly good number of jobs to do.

The job: Somewhere nobody can book

Before the code: What can the quiet retreat rooms in the commons never be booked for?

Hint 1

It is in How the house is built, and again under The commons.

Hint 2

The opposite of being on your own.

Last hint

More than one person, meeting together.

Give me the answer

The answer is A group. A group: the commons are split into gathering spaces and quiet retreat rooms, and the retreat rooms can never be booked for a group event, so there is always somewhere quiet to go.

Taking the answer is a real way through this, not a lesser one. Nothing is watching and nothing is written down.

Quest code: HONEYJAR

Hand it in at the Adventurer’s Guild →