ABOUT US

What You Can Expect:  
Our business is tailored to suit the needs of local women and mothers with core personal values behind every estimate, project and design we take on. We build all of our structures to adhere to current International Residential Code standards and take pride in the projects we get to be a part of. 

 These values include: 
Emotional Intelligence: We respect our clients, ourselves and our employee's time and personal lives. We run our business on relationship building which means establishing trust throught honesty, transparency and reliability.  
Transparency: Clients will never be blindsided by an unexpected charge or increase on their invoice unless it has been cleared and agreed upon first. We keep records of customer conversations, data and project management for easy reference.
Honesty: Our clients can always expect honesty about the amount of work a project is going to take us, why it will take this long, what our services or products include and a fair price for it.
 Trust: Many of our clients become friends and we wouldn't have it any other way. Through principle practices like education, consistency and reliability, we build solid foundations with our clients, our employees and our sub-contractors. 
Reliability and Punctuality: We will show up on time, every time and will communicate if we are ever anticipating delays. We've heard the nightmare stories of contractors who don't show up, don't complete jobs and don't communicate efficiently. We sometimes step in where other companies step out. 
Safety: Most of our exterior projects include the usage of an all natural vegetation safe deck cleaner. More intricate projects like cutting boards are finished with a food grade combination of beeswax, minerail oil and vitamin E. Montesorri style triangles are sanded to 1000 grit and finished with an all natural beeswax for safety of the kiddos. Our client safety is our top priority when building structures and handling projects for restaurants, offices etc.  
Communication/Updates: We will update you often and keep in touch throughout the project duration. 
Giving Back: La Matriarca values community building through providing access to the trades for young people participating in programs through Young Women Empowered. We prioritize employment for queer, women and gender non-binary/conforming people and believe in creating access to a field we historically have not had access to.




       





About Me/Us:
Originally from Chicago where she spent 25 years, Melissa was born and raised by a single mother with 3 siblings. She moved to Seattle in 2015 to pursue an AmeriCorps opportunity with Habitat for Humanity Seattle-King County where she spent a year building homes for low-income families. Her area of expertise and focus was community engagement which she now she infuses into her relationships at La Matriarca. After Habitat, she was recruited as the Director of Outreach for Seattle Pride where she volunteered for 3 years coordinating corporate parade relationships, social media responsibilities and representing the org publicly on King 5 and during board meetings. During this period, she was also employed full-time at Mary's Place family shelter as one of their floor staff. From there she made her way to YouthCare, where she worked at the downtown Orion Center as a housing case manager with young people experiencing homelessness. After years of social service, she made a decision to switch her career to a more hands on position and took on small business ownership. 
Melissa and her partner, Anjilee founded La Matriarca with the intention of creating safety, employment and trust with queer, POC and female identifying clients. 
A message from us:
"When you choose to support our work, you are choosing to support a queer, women owned, POC business. La Matriarca is the result of many of my maternal lineage's hard work to survive. I come from a long line of resilient, strong women who have faced immense generational trauma and oppression for, in some cases, the entirety of their lives. This business is an ode to those women, and the women all over the world who continue to try to make the world a better place. To the mothers, the nurturers, the life-givers, I commend and honor you. Thank you for supporting me and my journey. I hope some how in some way, I help to support yours too."
Melissa