Vermont Housing Conservation Board 2005 - Vermont Housing and ...

“Owning a home isn’t just luck...it is hard work!”
TWIN PINES HOUSING TRUST HELPS
COUPLE REALIZE THEIR DREAM
Joan and Gabriel Ponzoni are an inspiration to their neighbors. After thirty-five
years of marriage they still do everything together. That includes all the hard
work this loving couple have painstakingly put into every inch of their house and
yard. Flower, vegetable, and herb gardens abound. Joan proudly describes how her
husband constructed a grape arbor for her, reminiscent of their time living in Italy.
She showed me the remaining vines of the morning glories she had planted over her
back fence, which grew on the other side, much to the delight of her neighbors.
Inside the Ponzoni home, every wall is beautifully painted, stenciled, or decorated.
Plants, wall hangings, and meticulously stitched needlework grace the home.
The overall effect is a combination of Mediterranean, French, and American culture.
As I was shown into room after room, the pride of accomplishment was evident
in Joan’s voice as she described each hand-painted, handcrafted, or hand-made
item. Then at the end of the tour we sat in the cozy kitchen, and Joan said to me,
“Things weren’t always like this. At one point, before we had ever heard of Twin
Pines, owning a home seemed like an impossible dream.”
Joan is from Canada, and Gabriel is from Italy, where they lived for a while,
and where their daughter Norma was born. After returning to the United States,
they spent nine years living in a twenty-five foot travel trailer. The Ponzoni’s lived
in a variety of states, before ending up in Vermont twenty years ago. They left the
trailer to live in apartments, moving when rents were raised or properties were
sold. They became tired of moving, and not having a home to call their own, so
the search began to find a house. They searched for over a year and a half, but the
prices were either too high, or the houses too run down. Joan remembers walking
out of one house with tears streaming down her face. It felt so hopeless. Houses in
their price range weren’t worth buying because they needed so much work. Then,
Joan and Gabriel heard about Twin Pines Housing Trust and the initiative to build
affordable single-family homes. They applied, qualified, and then waited for the
house to be built. They will never forget the day the papers were signed and keys
were handed over. “We were so happy!” Joan said.
Joan and Gabriel Ponzoni have lived in their house for fourteen years. When
asked how owning a home has changed their lives, they answer that it gave them
the chance to put down roots, and to have not just a house but a home. Their
advice for first time homebuyers is to keep trying, and when you get it you have
to appreciate it. You have to work to make it better.
“People say we’re lucky, but I say it isn’t just luck, it’s hard work. Sure, you have
to get lucky to get something like a house, but then you have to work hard to keep
it. You can’t just let it go.”
The Ponzoni’s don’t intend to ever let their home go. They love to travel, but
now they know they have a place to come home to that they can call their own.
Reprinted from the Twin Pines Housing Trust newsletter. Abridged from an article by
Shelley Geoghegan, Publicity and Resident Outreach Coordinator
Joan and Gabriel Ponzoni, at
home. The Ponzonis were able
to purchase a home after
many years of renting.
The Ponzoni's home in White River
Junction was built by Twin Pines
Housing Trust using VHCB funds.
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