Happy living under one roof

THE KITCHEN is the turf of Rannie’s wife Charrie and daughters Regina and Marga.

Singer-actor Lance Raymundo says he’s perfectly happy living with his parents and the family of older brother Rannie.

The Raymundos moved into this two-story  house in San Juan in 1986.

Parents Nilo and Nina commissioned designer Ramon Antonio to decorate it with fixtures made by Romero Furniture from materials bought in Hong Kong. “The house used to be a reflection of my taste, but gradually changed to cater to my sons’ needs,” mom Nina shares.

State-of-the-art

LANCE does a lot of sunbathing here for his role as villain in “The Thief, the Kid and the Killer.”

When Lance and Rannie grew older, their playroom was the first thing to go. The brothers transformed it into a state-of-the-art recording studio.

“Some record companies master their CDs here. They can rent it,” Lance says. “Since my brother and I are both musicians, we record our own songs here. Whenever we get ideas, we just come down here, even late at night.”

The kitchen, adds Lance, is now the territory of Rannie’s wife Charrie and daughters Regina and Marga. They like to bake together.

“He [Rannie] actually has a house in Valle Verde [in Pasig City], but he prefers staying here with me and my parents,” Lance tells Living Stars.

Their mother hardly cooks nowadays, although she used to prepare kare-kare and

sinigang—the boys’ favorites while they were growing up.

The living area still has Nina’s antique ceramic vases and collection of crystal figurines, but some shelves are now filled with Rannie’s books and magic paraphernalia.

Family magician

“Rannie is a magician. He lectures around the Philippines and also in America, Japan and Hong Kong. You can even buy his DVDs in Hong Kong,” says Lance. “It’s great because when we watched Lance Burton’s magic show in Las Vegas recently, he acknowledged Rannie when he spotted him in the audience.”

THE RAYMUNDO brothers converted their playroom into a recording studio.

Lance says his dad contributes to the clutter in the living room. “He has a foundation called Agilang Pilipino. The members conduct outreach programs so we always have relief goods here,” he explains.

“We spend most of our time by the pool,” he says. “We’re not bothered that this area has been a little messy lately.”

The poolside has been the venue of a lot of parties, as well as business meetings, mostly involving Rannie, who is a barangay kagawad (councilman).

Nina adds: “Members of the group Kundirana are always here; so are my granddaughters’ classmates. Lance’s friends come to swim here, too.”

Lance’s favorite spot is his bedroom, on the second floor. It used to look “very Japanese,” with wallpaper made from tatami mats and a chabudai, or short-legged dining table.

“I was too young then to decide on how my room would look. I requested the change in wallpaper and carpet. The only remaining Japanese thing here is the low wooden bed,” Lance  says. “The new look is ideal for me. I like to keep it simple.”

Bedroom’s new look

He claims he is most creative when alone. “I have keyboards in the room—sometimes, ideas strike me at the wrong time—I work on them immediately.”

THE EIGHT-foot-deep pool is venue to a lot of parties and meetings.

Lance points out: “That song you thought of at 2 in the morning could be a hit but you could miss the chance if you just sleep through it.”

He took a break from performing to finish school and made a comeback in 2011, “not just with a normal CD but a thematic one.”

A FAMILY that stays together

Free to write

“I was happy I’ve had a hit, ‘You are the One,’ but I wasn’t completely fulfilled with my sound,” he admits. “Now, I’m given the freedom to write all my songs. I came up with ‘Wonders Of Living and Freedom’ or WOLF. It’s electro-pop. I mixed electronica (referring to a wide range of contemporary electronic music) with pop and dance. It’s Pinoy music that you can dance to in clubs.”