A New Beginning
In October 2024, Habitat for Humanity of East Jefferson County broke ground on its first cottage-style neighborhood, a six-home community designed to bring neighbors
close, while giving each family a place of their own.
Breaking Ground
At the groundbreaking, the future was already visible.
Families selected for the homes stood alongside sponsors, staff, donors, and volunteers. What started as plans and drawings became something tangible, shared by everyone gathered that day.
Photos from the Cliff Street Cottages groundbreaking.
Bottom right photo: future homeowners David and Marlen.
The Neighborhood Takes Shape
Slowly, Cliff Street Cottages came together.
Frames rose. Walls went up. Rooflines took form.
Step by step, the site transformed into a neighborhood, six homes taking shape, each
one tied to a family’s future.
Building Together
In the months that followed, Cliff Street Cottages became a center of activity.
Volunteers showed up week after week, building not just homes, but a neighborhood. The site hosted Pride Builds, Women Build, and group builds from across the community, each one contributing to something larger than any single day’s work.
Photos, clockwise from top left: Care-A-Vanners; October 2025 Pride Build;
July 2025 Women Build; Kitsap Bank group build.
Marking Milestones and Moments
Along the way, the work was marked by moments of reflection and celebration.
Prayers were written inside walls before they were closed. Home dedications brought people together to recognize what had been built and what it meant. These moments were a special opportunity to connect homebuyers with the house sponsors: Beth Weaver, Bill and Ann Testerman, Truck Guys and Gals, Anonymous & David Harrah, Cross Charitable Foundation & Chelcie and Kathy Liu.
Cliff Street Cottages was also the site of Habitat’s 75th home dedication, a major
milestone for the organization.
Between these milestones were the moments that made the site feel alive: a birthday build, a retirement celebration, and the everyday connections that turned a construction site into something more.
Photos, clockwise from top left: at the Prayers in the Walls ceremony, a heartfelt wish for the new homeowners; Derik and Alisa receive their new keys from Carol Gonnella, Cross Charitable Foundation; the ‘birthday’ build for homeowner Jenny (seated on the left), by friends and family; at the 75th home dedication, the friends and family of homeowners David and Marlen prepared a special meal for the community.
What It Becomes
Cliff Street Cottages is more than a collection of houses.
It reflects what happens when people come together with a shared purpose, contributing time, resources, and care to create something lasting.
What began as a vacant site is now a neighborhood, shaped by many hands.
For the families who live there, it is something even more. It is home.
To learn more about the Cliff Street Cottages neighborhood, visit the Cliff Street webpage.