A group of Nirvana fans have launched a campaign to transform Kurt Cobain’s childhood home into a museum. Supporters hope to raise $700,000 (£423,000) to purchase and convert the singer’s Washington bungalow, which was recently listed for sale.

The project is led by journalist Jaime Dunkle, who told the Broward/Palm Beach New Times that she has been listening to Nirvana since she was “a kid, almost a baby” (via Pitchfork). Although the crowdfunding campaign has only attracted about $135 (£82) in donations during its first 17 days, “[I’m] confident it’s only a matter of time before people start donating,” Dunkle said. Those who donate now will be eligible for prizes including museum memberships, screen-printed T-shirts, and “a pair of tickets to the sold-out Die Antwoord show in Portland”.

This is certainly not some grand corporate enterprise: Dunkle has neither museum experience nor major investors. But she is a sincere fan, vowing to keep Cobain’s former house out of “the clutches of capitalist greed”. After gathering “a long list of everything I’ve ever done”, the realtor working for the seller, Cobain’s mother, allowed Dunkle to visit the site. She shot a shaky handheld video, showing stencilled Led Zeppelin and Iron Maiden logos, plus the dreary, misty view through Cobain’s bedroom window.

“Being inside was a total head spin,” she said. “As I wandered around, looking in closets, I imagined him as a teen, crouched inside, scribbling in his diaries or making sketches … All I could think was that I was seeing through his eyes and walking in his footsteps.”

Cobain lived in the house, about 100 miles from Seattle, from age two to age nine, and again in his late teens. “We’ve decided to sell the home to create a legacy for Kurt,” his sister, Kim Cobain, said in a statement about the sale. “Yes, there are some mixed feelings since we have all loved the home and it carries so many great memories. But our family has moved on from Washington, and [we] feel it’s time to let go of the home.”

Cobain died in Seattle in 1994.