Lila Browne can’t wait to strap on her tool belt and get to hammering on her future.

“I’m experienced in laying floors, tiling and painting,” she said. “I’ve seen how a house gets framed. The kids have been building since they were born.”

Browne and her two young children will be recipients of the 21st house built on Whidbey Island by the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing affordable housing to qualified buyers who will help to build it.

Groundbreaking for Browne’s three-bedroom, 1,100-square-foot house will be Sunday at its Beachwood Drive property just off East Harbor Road near Freeland.

She hopes to be moved in by fall. The sooner the better, since the trio is currently living in Langley in a 35-foot, 1951 aluminum mobile home she got for free and pulled from the woods near Goss Lake.

Browne put a new floor in the trailer and made other renovations, and she and her daughter Maketa, 9 and son Prince, 4, have been living in it since she returned to Whidbey after 10 years in the Caribbean.

“We’ve always lived in small spaces,” Browne said, “but after a year and a half, we’re ready to move.”

Habitat for Humanity sells houses at zero-interest loans to qualified buyers. Much of the materials are donated, and most of the construction is done by volunteers — including the new owner, who must put in at least 500 hours of “sweat equity.”

Buyers must be steadily employed with low to moderate incomes, and be living in substandard housing.

Habitat for Humanity provides mandatory classes for buyers on the responsibilities of home ownership and the prudent management of finances — as Browne said, “How to budget and how to take care of money.”

Browne, 39, who ran a restaurant on the islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, made a decision to work fewer hours on Whidbey to spend more time with her children.

A self-described “island girl” and a 1988 graduate of South Whidbey High School, she currently is employed as a personal trainer and advertising representative for Island Athletic Club in Freeland.

She said she’s happy to be back on Whidbey, where she has a large extended family.

“People here have known me since I was born,” Browne said. “I have deep roots in the community.”

Barbara Enberg of Clinton helps select buyers for South End houses built by Island County Habitat for Humanity.

“Housing prices have escalated so much, many of those who provide services to the island are forced to move off the island,” Enberg said. “We’re trying to alleviate that, and also to alleviate slum housing.”

“We’re careful in selecting families, and we provide nice, livable homes,” she said. “Anyone would be proud to have a Habitat house in their neighborhood.”

Enberg’s husband, Randy, has been in charge of the South End Habitat committee since its inception

11 years ago. She said she has been involved in the program for about seven years.

As for Browne and her children, she said: “They’re a wonderful, wonderful family, and she’s a very hard worker. She’s great at getting in and pounding nails.”

Enberg said each project may draw 10 volunteers or 100, and at least 400 local volunteers have participated in the program through the years.

Browne said groundbreaking for her new house will be from 2 to 3 p.m. Sunday at the site, 1934 Beachwood Drive, in Freeland. The public is invited. In the next few weeks, a septic system and a foundation will be put in, then framing will begin.

Browne said her house will be the program’s first in the area built to certified “green” and energy-efficient standards.

“That’s a really big step for them,” she said.

Founded in 1976, Habitat for Humanity International has built more than 300,000 houses around the world, providing more than

1.5 million people in more than 3,000 communities with safe and affordable shelter.

Enberg said that most buyers are happy to participate in the construction.

“That makes them proud of their homes,” she said, “taking part from the ground up.”

“We wish we could give everyone who applies a chance,” Enberg added. “But that just doesn’t happen.”