Taking a dream apartment and making it better

A COUPLE FILL THEIR BEACHWOOD CANYON HAVEN WITH ART, THRIFTED GOODS.

- LISA BOONE

NATALIE Babcock and Samuel Gibson, left, with Chili and Peaches, added peeland-stick floor tiles in the kitchen. Gibson's office, below, is full of local artists' works.

WHEN Natalie Babcock and Samuel Gibson found a listing for a sunny apartment in Beachwood Canyon five years ago, they immediately fell for the two bedroom's charming built-in bookshelves, faux fireplace, hardwood floors and formal dining room. Practical amenities such as an in-unit laundry and a garage, which are often elusive in Los Angeles rentals, didn't hurt.

Today, however, the two say they are most impressed by the sense of belonging they have found in the community just outside their 1928 Spanish fourplex. Here, where tourists and brides in wedding gowns often pose for photographs in the middle of the street in an effort to capture the Hollywood sign in the background, Babcock and Gibson have become part of a larger family. "Everyone knows our dogs' names," says Babcock, a 35-year-old educator working in the adolescent mental health field. "There is a true community vibe in this neighborhood." Adds Gibson, a 38-year-old screenwriter and Spanish professor and tutor from London: "I've never lived in a place that felt like a neighborhood. We're in a message group with our neighbors. Sometimes our dog walks take forever because we stop every few minutes to say hello to someone." The couple was living in a charming apartment in Los Feliz when Gibson had to return to England to care for his mother, who had pancreatic cancer. Compounding their distress, Babcock's father suffered a stroke, and Babcock moved in with her parents to help her sister, Eve, care for their father.

"It was the worst year of our lives," Babcock recalls of that period. "Sam's mother died, and my father had a catastrophic stroke." Their Los Feliz apartment was filled with bad memories, and they were excited by the prospect of creating happier memories in a new apartment.