Flower Farm - Herb Farm - Black Woman Owned Leavenworth, WA
Please Help Us Build Our Family Farmette
I am building a house & flower farmette for my daughter & I.
Your support will help our family fill the gap between my budget and inflation.
If you’d prefer to pilot a farmstead experience for your contribution, scroll down for those options.
Gift cards to Marson & Marson, Lowes, and Home Depot will also help.
About Us
Unexpected Small Town Love Story
Have you ever fallen in love with a community, became a part of it through your work, volunteerism, and friendships, and then almost lost it because you could not find a stable, affordable place to live?
We have.
Leavenworth, Washington, is the little Bavarian-themed mountain town that captured my heart nearly fifteen years ago, inspired me to shift my career focus to rural communities, and has gifted us with a rich tapestry of wonderful people we are honored to call friends, framily, and neighbors.
After more than four years of looking, we finally found and purchased a patch of land last year! Now, after all that time, we are building our family homestead and flower farmette!
The Business
The Mountain View Homestead is not just destined to become our Home. It will become our family business.
In addition to renting out the daylight basement, we will
- grow and sell flowers by subscription and bouquets,
- sell small batch preserves and custom tea blends,
- add a detached ADU with a canning kitchen in the "garage" - to scale our small batch preserves and teas - and
- build a conservatory greenhouse for winter sowing and seasonal access for intimate community events (like pop-up art shows for local artists).
All operations will be consistent with our zoning parameters and will prioritize connecting with and being supportive of our local community.
Building Affordable Is Still Spendy
My savings and loans from dear friends have gone towards the land, site prep, engineered plans ($20k on these alone!), permitting, and purchasing much of the finish materials. But to complete the build of the house and perennial beds, I need additional financing.
I am asking for your help because even with building a modest house in a community with next to no affordable housing, this project will be spendy.
I recognize that the affordable housing shortage isn’t just a problem for our family. It’s a problem for local small businesses and public agencies that need employees.
So when I found our land while scrolling through Craigslist, I knew that our homestead will not only be a home for our family and the start of our flower and herb farmette. It will also provide - via our daylight basement apartment and eventually an apartment above the canning kitchen - housing to those who work in our community.
Why Crowdfunding?
With your help, our gorgeous parcel will become a Faswall cottage with a daylight basement apartment, and a market garden of flowers and herbs.
Because I co-own the land with the friends who helped me buy it AND I am an owner-builder serving as general contractor for our build, banks have refused to lend me a conventional and affordable construction loan.
So I must rely on more expensive signature loans, my pay-as-I-go budget, and the proceeds from this crowdfunding campaign to keep the momentum going on the build AND the site work for our flower beds.
Please consider making a cash donation or take a look at the donation reward options below to support our build and get the first taste of the farmette and homestead.
Have Tools and/or Time? Join a work party!
If you’d like to provide in-kind help, there’s a whole list of options on our work party sign up form! Karen’s birthday is in October and with your help, she can get to occupancy during her birth month!
Not only will you get to have hands-on experience with Faswall, you will be fed like feudal lords and ladies as I show you what I mean when I say, "In our family, food is a love language."