Never say never - at least not around Reggie.
“My wife thought we’d never own a house and I said, ‘One day we will.’ Maybe 8 months later we were buying our first house,” the actor and cafe manager says.
With a grin stretching ear to ear, his pride fills the room, but Reggie’s dream isn’t about fancy finishes or an amazing floor plan.
“Taking out the recycle bins and the trash, cutting wood to build something, putting artificial turf down - whatever it may be, every day I walk in and I'm in my glory,” he says.
For him, simply living in a house is enough.
“It’s still unbelievable today,” he says. “It makes you really look at where you came from.”
Humble beginnings
Reggie moved to Roslindale, MA with his mom and brother when he was 2 years old.
“We moved in with my aunt, uncle and their kids, so there were 14 of us in a 4-bedroom apartment in the projects in Boston,” he says. “… It looked big to me at the time, but now looking back, the bed was very small, and the apartment was very small.”
Reggie shared a twin-size bed with his brother, but he’d rather dwell on the positives.
“My uncle brought Dunkin’ Donuts every Saturday, which was amazing,” he recalls. “So that was what we looked forward to every Saturday morning: cartoons and Dunkin’ Donuts.”
A first for everything
In 1989, Reggie left Boston to go to college before moving permanently to Los Angeles in ’96. Of all his cousins and siblings, he’s the first to buy a house.
“I just realized that,” he says. “I’m the first kid to buy a house from everybody that stayed in that 4-bedroom apartment.”
Reggie believes there are so many places you can go in life, no matter where you came from.
“It’s a journey, and I love every minute of it,” he says. “Every minute.”
He and his wife have embraced the idea of making your house a home. From ripping down walls to adding a bathroom - they’ve done it all.
“I’m living the dream. I don’t have a white picket fence - it will be more of a corrugated fence,” he says “… But I am living the American Dream.”
Reggie was interviewed for Zillow's latest advertising campaign. Watch the TV commercials here.
Related:
- Introducing 'Stories of Home'
- A New Song for an Abandoned Home
- '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/1p3mlgD
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