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[music playing]

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I always feel more
inspired and creative

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after spending time here.

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There's something about it.

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You just feel like a kid again.

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You're giggling when the water
comes and hits you by surprise.

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It's the best feeling

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[music playing]

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This house came up at
really just a perfect time.

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I kind of think it's my
child, like the creaky floors

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or the wind blowing against the
walls and making kind of shake,

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I mean that's life.

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It's just part of its being.

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I nurtured it.

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And as a result of it.

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I think it gave me new life.

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[music playing]

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We are in Hollywood beach,
which is one of the beaches

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that makes up Channel Islands.

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The area is just it's
very calm, very quiet.

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We're just surrounded
by a lot of nature.

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The house is about 50
steps away from sand.

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We always call it
like 50 barefoot steps

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because there's no
reason to put shoes

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on when you're right there.

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When you come to the house,
the first floor is our garage.

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And you go up the steps
and you go immediately

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to the sleeping quarters.

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The living quarters
is on the third floor

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to take advantage of the view.

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[music playing]

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[whooshing]

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I was born in the Philippines.

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And I came when I
was eight years old.

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So definitely an island girl.

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I've always loved
being by the ocean.

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My father grew up in a
little fishing village,

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so I was always near the
beach there, and never would

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I've thought to be
able to afford a home.

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[music playing]

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We weren't looking
for the house.

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A friend of ours posted a view
from the house on his Facebook.

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The house is really
nothing to look at.

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My husband felt the same way.

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And it was even worse
than we thought.

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Everyone wanted
to take it down--

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demolished.

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Every person that came
in with their contractor,

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contractor was saying like,
no let's start from scratch.

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But I really thought
there was really

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great bones in the house.

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It really spoke to me.

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I didn't need to reinvent it.

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I just needed to show
people what it had,

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what its potential was.

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We didn't want to
change the house.

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We wanted to just bring
it back it's life.

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[music playing]

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Before this, I owned my own
company in motion graphics.

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And we worked with a couple of
really big entertainment shows

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but it just became
too monotonous

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always doing the same thing.

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And so I was really
in a creative rut.

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You kind of always felt that
you had this one job that you

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trained to be and that
was going to be it

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for the rest of your life and
then when you hit a wall you're

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sort of like left
in a panic of like,

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what am I going to do now?

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So we went ahead and we got the
house and we started working.

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And it became this
creative project

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that I hadn't had for so long.

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It allowed me to do
what I wanted to do,

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to see what the life was in
this house and bring it out.

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It was magical for me.

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[music playing]

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So the color, I don't really
know the name of the paint

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because we kind of went
custom at some point.

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I just wanted it to
feel like the ocean.

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And so for me when
I look out there

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it's not really just
a clear blue ocean.

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It's definitely has
tinges of green.

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So it just is a way
to reflect parts

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of the neighborhood,
parts of the environment

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without like
completely copying it.

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[music playing]

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When you enter the house,
you are entering straight

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into the sleeping quarters.

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And kind of feels to me like
a ship keeping the sleeping

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quarters on the second
floor where it's just more

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quiet and less distractions.

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And then the living quarters
would be up on the third floor.

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The story that we were given
when we first bought the house

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was that it was an
upside down boat.

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I feel like it's capsized but
yet it's still able to survive.

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And I love that you can
hear the ocean from outside.

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It feels like you
are in this ship

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and you just feel
like you are part

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of the adventure of this house.

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We have these
beautiful wood beams

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and they were painted
this putrid green.

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So we stripped it and we just
put a natural finish to it.

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I mean, why would
you want to cover it?

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It's one of those things where
it's like just let it out

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let, like show its true
nature, show its true beauty,

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and people will finally see
that they've always been there,

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you just weren't looking.

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The kitchen actually
stopped right here.

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And so there was only
one room for one person.

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My husband comes
from a large family,

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so gathering around
the kitchen was really

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important so we expanded.

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The kitchen now consists
of the old kitchen

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and the dining room.

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A kitchen shelf should
have as much personality

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as the rest of the house.

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So I like to put the paintings
there, the decorative pieces.

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They're not in the
weigh at all but they

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again, add to the
story of this area.

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All the pieces in the house
are pretty much vintage.

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I wanted the house to feel like
everything in it grew with it.

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A lot of the things that I
have were bought from the swap

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meet or from the flea
market, all very local.

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I kind of like that idea
that things used to be here

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or could have been here and
now it's found its way back.

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I really didn't want
to follow a trend.

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I didn't want the house to
be what other people thought

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a beach house should be.

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I wanted it to be me.

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I wanted it to be
my husband, my kids.

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I wanted it to speak about us.

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I was born in the Philippines.

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So I really loved the
idea of incorporating

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things with an Asian--

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Asian history to it.

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I also have a mix
of Japanese blood.

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So again, that is all
about me and the house

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is not only telling
its story but also

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my story and my families.

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My parents came to
this country when I

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was eight, built a life for us.

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So traveling here makes me
remember what they sacrificed,

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what they did for
us, what I've been

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able to do because of
them, and then what

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we want to do for our children.

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This is something that we want
our family to continue to use.

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I feel like I've done what
my parents wanted me to do,

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which is have a better life.

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You know, that's what
they wanted us to do

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when we came to this country.

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And what better life than to
be able to be in this house

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that you love, be
surrounded by nature,

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be surrounded with your
family, like this is the dream.

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So this house is my dream.

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[music playing]