Alexandra grew up in Shelton, Washington, a small town near Olympia, before meeting her wife Lan and moving to Seattle. When they lived in Seattle, it was in a small one-bedroom apartment. While they loved living in the Fremont neighborhood, the apartment was so tiny that it was difficult to make it feel like their own.
After a few years, the young couple moved back to Shelton to save money and be closer to Alexandra’s family for a while. While it was important for her to be near family, Alexandra missed living in Seattle and hanging out with friends at her old place, and Lan still commuted multiple hours every day for her job in Seattle as a structural engineer. Thanks to Habitat SKKC, they have recently moved back to Seattle as first-time homeowners.
“When we moved to Shelton, it was nice to live near my family. But it wasn’t really our own space. I’m really excited to live in a home where it can be our own for the first time,” Alexandra explains.
Alexandra was born in Alaska, and she goes back there every summer to visit her dad’s side of the family and to fish. There, she spends time in Cordova and Bristol Bay taking in the beauty of the surroundings, including the glaciers that dot the landscape. Alexandra’s family business is fishing, and she is a third-generation fisher. Her grandparents, aunt and dad, and now Alexandra all fish for salmon, primarily Sockeye. They build and live in cabins on the beach and fish when the tide comes in. Returning to Alaska every summer keeps her connected to her family there, and she gets to continue an important family tradition.
Back in Seattle, Alexandra loves the vibrant arts community. She especially likes that the city has many small businesses and that it’s known for the bookstores that have different themes. There’s something to do all the time, including new restaurants popping up every week. “Lan and I are huge foodies, so we’ll go to a new restaurant every week,” she adds.
In addition to working as a seasonal fisher, Alexandra is in graduate school studying public health. Before she started her graduate program, she volunteered a lot in sexual and domestic violence advocacy, and so she wanted to get back into that field. Once she graduates, she’ll likely have to give up her summers fishing in Alaska to focus on full-time work, but she is ready for the change so she can commit to her new career.
When not in school, art lover Alexandra goes to the movies with Lan and takes screenwriting and drawing classes on the side. Her latest crafting interest is clay-making. She already plans to check out the pottery studios in Seattle once she’s settled into her new home.
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Alexandra and Lan found out about Habitat’s homeownership program through some of Lan’s friends, whose family members have gone through the program and recommended it. Alexandra adds, “When we were visiting our friends, we saw Yarrow Cottages right across the street. And then they said, ‘Our parents went through that program, and they loved it, and it helped them so much.’”
This word-of-mouth recommendation led them to apply to the program, and now they call Yarrow Cottages home. Alexandra found the homebuying process to be easy, particularly due to the helpfulness of the Habitat SKKC staff: “I have some health problems where I can’t be outside in the sun as much, so they’ve helped me find volunteer opportunities working in the store.”
Alexandra volunteered at multiple Habitat Stores sorting and cleaning, interacting with the different volunteers, and organizing the shelves. Besides volunteering with Habitat, another key piece of the homebuying process is taking the homeowner classes available through Habitat. Alexandra explains, “They went over the buying process and helping with financials. There were also some that focused on if things break down in your house, how you can fix it. And they’ve all been free, which has been awesome.”
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Now moved into their new home, the couple looks forward to spending more time together, going on more dates, and hosting dinners and movie nights with friends. Alexandra also looks forward to feeling more connected to different communities in the city, particularly the art community.
Alexandra is most excited about her new kitchen and living room: “It’s huge compared to our last place. And we’re friend-oriented, found family-oriented. Building it so that we have a space to all be together is wonderful.”
To make their new place feel like a home, they picked up a few items from the Habitat Store to decorate, and Alexandra’s dad, a woodworker, is building a few pieces as well. They’re putting up pictures from the different weddings they have been to for their friends, and other photographs to document their many travels together. Alexandra wants to include sentimental objects from the past while setting up her home so that they can make new memories there.
