A professional jazz vocalist, Ann is living the dream singing for movies and TV scores. But she never thought her career would land her a house.
“Musicians and teachers - you’re not supposed to be able to afford a house in Los Angeles, you know? It feels so out of reach,” she says.
When their son was about two months old, Ann and her husband felt they were outgrowing their apartment. They all shared one bedroom, and any time Ann needed to practice a song, the neighbors were a thin wall away.
Renting was all they knew - and all they thought they could afford - but something needed to change. They decided to give house hunting a go.
Hunting for ‘the one’
“The money is terrifying,” Ann says. “It's like having a kid, where it's every emotion. … You're scared. You're excited. You're happy. You're nervous. You're tired. You're worried. … But it’s wonderful.”
Ann set up alerts on Zillow to notify her of homes for sale below a certain price point, and one day a house checking all her boxes appeared.
“It just popped up one day and I was like, ‘Oh, my God. We have to go see it.’ Because in that neighborhood, it’s almost impossible to get what we could afford,” she says.
Turns out, it wasn’t the house of their dreams. It was a house no one wanted.
“Everything in the house was staged horribly, and there were cracks in the walls … so nobody would touch it,” Ann explains.
But the lack of competition meant they had a chance. And Ann wasn’t turned off by a house needing a little TLC - it’s what she loved most.
Breathing new life
“A husband and wife had lived there for, you know, 50 years. He had passed away, and the wife thought she was going to go spend some time with family. But she ultimately decided not to come back,” Ann explains.
The house was longing to be loved again. Ann could tell by the marks on the wall from picture frames that hung for years, and the way the couch cushions sagged, that it was once full of life.
“There were closets full of slideshows, old family photos and things that just got left,” she says. “So it was really cool [to think we] could breathe new life into it and raise a family [there] all over again.”
To this day, Ann can’t believe they own a home.
“It’s amazing. Like, we own property. We own that land. We could have the worst L.A. earthquake that’s ever happened and the whole house could tumble, but we own that land. That’s insane,” she says.
The day they moved in, they found out what kind of community they were now part of: they needed toilet paper, and the neighbors swooped in. “They all saw me walking, and gave me rolls of toilet paper,” she recalls.
With 14 kids on the block, there’s no shortage of Nerf guns and Frisbees. And Ann does her part to draw people in through a family tradition of cooking.
“It's just a really good way to push your love on other people,” she says. “It’s what a home is supposed to be, at least for me.”
Ann was interviewed for Zillow's latest advertising campaign. Watch the TV commercials here.
Related:
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- How ‘Home Was a Safe House’ for This Refugee and Cancer Survivor
- 'There's a Story in Every House' … How Film Director Errol Morris Finds It
via Zillow Porchlight | Real Estate News, Advice and Inspiration http://ift.tt/1TwXZJG
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