Dear Friends, Family, & Community-

The short version:

We are humbly asking for your support to fund the building of a small sound-safe home addition for our son Oliver and our family.

Oliver has been dealing with some mysterious and challenging health issues for a number of years that have greatly impacted his and our family's quality of life. Last fall, we determined that our old farmhouse had high levels of toxic mold that were a huge contributing factor to his illness and we made the difficult decision to move out in November 2024.

Determined to stay on our land, which is also a primary source of income via our farm business, Andy quickly converted a 10' x 12' summer camp room under our pole barn into a "micro-home" for the three of us and our dog Banjo. We have been living in that 120 sq. ft. (!) space for nearly seven months now, and while winter was cozy and intimate and even precipitated Hanna and Andy getting married in May after 16+ years together, we now need more space to continue healing and we are hoping to build two more 10' x 12' rooms.

Our starting goal of $10,000 will get Oliver a new fully furnished bedroom that is better protected from the small engine sounds of the season. Our broader goal of $25,000 will bring us a common living space that includes a proper kitchen, bringing our grand total of indoor space to 390 sq. ft.

We are incredibly grateful for any support you can offer!

The longer story:

For those of you who don’t know him, Oliver is our sweet and sensitive nearly-12-year-old homeschooled son who loves being with animals, drawing fantastical characters, building worlds in Lego and Minecraft, reading, swimming and playing games like Dungeons & Dragons and Pokemon with his friends. He has been struggling since 2022 with debilitating misophonia that has severely impacted our family on many levels. Misophonia is an extreme sensitivity to sounds and vibrations that are common and persistent in everyday modern life. Oliver’s presentation is such that small engines, music and even sometimes Andy's breathing can send him into an immediate and severe fight/flight, disabling his ability to function.

His current symptoms also encompass several complex health conditions that span diagnoses associated with Lyme disease, PANS/PANDAS, birth trauma and mold toxicity. We have been working to address challenging health needs for his entire life, but the intensity of this current exhibition has required a great deal of one-on-one caretaking as he is largely unable to participate in activities outside the home. These regular demands on our time to research and pursue a variety of healing strategies in order to care for him have diminished our ability to work and produce more income. We have recently added several new health care modalities that have shown great promise for other children experiencing similar challenges and we are incredibly hopeful that these efforts will lead to improved health for Oliver.

We have identified that a healthy living space with clean air is one of the key components for his healing. In October of 2024, we confirmed that excessive levels of highly neurotoxic mold were present in our early 1800s farmhouse. Because Oliver’s symptoms were becoming more and more severe, we were advised to move out immediately and also replace a great deal of our living supplies like beds and furniture in order to create as clean an environment as possible. Fortunately, in Spring 2024 Andy had built a new room on our farm so that Oliver could attend our summer camps, be present on the farm and have his sound needs met. Upon receiving the news about the mold, Andy quickly converted this 10’ x 12’ room into a “micro-home” and the three of us and our dog Banjo moved out to the farm in November 2024.

As this is our first time living on the farm during the warmer months, we have learned that our micro-home cannot sufficiently buffer the small engine sounds of the season, which are exacerbating his symptoms and leading to him feeling unsafe, limiting his capacity to heal. We have been consistently reorienting and reconfiguring our life in response to Oliver's increasing sensitivities and a lot of our time and resources have been used to support his sound and nervous system needs. Andy had to quickly build a new walk-in cooler this Spring because the A/C compressor on the existing one, adjacent to our home, was triggering Oliver. Now Andy is renovating a studio that we had remediated so that Oliver can again attend our Summer camp along with other children that we host, since last year's indoor camp space is now our home.

Your donation will pay for materials for Andy to add two more 10’ x 12’ rooms adjacent to our current space for a grand total of 390 square feet of indoor living: a soundproof bedroom for Oliver and a small kitchen/common living space for our family. Andy works as a carpenter during the non-farming months and his labor will maximize your contribution. Our six month experiment in the 120 square foot “den” has largely been a successful one, but we see a small expansion as important to amplify our healing, especially for Oliver to have his own personal space as he approaches teenage years. We will not be moving back into the farmhouse due to Oliver's hypersensitivity to the mold.

This has been such a challenging, sacred and life-changing experience wrought with grief, joy, resilience and a deep sense of perseverance. Through this intimate experience, Hanna and Andy finally married on May 25 after being together for nearly 17 years! We are committed to healing and our dream is to stay here and live on the farm and help Oliver discover better health so that we can continue to steward this land and provide beautiful flowers and enriching experiences for ourselves and our visitors, children and adults alike. Please help us make this come true! We are grateful for your support.

With Love,

Hanna, Andy, & Oliver