We moved into our home in Hacienda Heights, a suburb of Los Angeles, when I was four years old — my sister, Dana, who is four years younger than me, my mother, Terri, and father, Pat Ferguson. My mother and father divorced when I was a teenager, and my mom now lives at the house with her second husband of 15 years. My mom is a speech therapist in an elementary school and my father was a high-school vice-principal and football coach. Now he is retired and starting a vineyard.

The house is 1970s-style and one storey. It is made of cement with a roof that looks like wood, but is fireproof: because it gets so hot in California, you have to watch out for fire. We are close to nature, right near the hills, and deer come by sometimes. We’re one minute from the largest Buddhist temple in North America, which was built with this whole nature background, which makes it so gorgeous and serene — very Zen.

Hacienda Heights is a 40-minute drive from the beach and, like any suburban city, it’s beautiful in some parts and, in others, not so beautiful. It’s a melting pot: there are a lot of Mexican-Ameri-cans and, in the past 10 years, it has become a lot more Asian-influenced because of the temple. A lot of the American grocery stores that I grew up with, such as Ralphs, are now Asian fish markets. Richard Gere has a house in Hacienda Heights because he’s Buddhist.

When I was 18, I moved out of home to share an apartment close to Hollywood with a girl who was in my singing group, Wild Orchid. I moved back home at 26, when I had the struggle with drugs — 25 was the year of decadence and debauchery. It was good to have a change of location: I was with my mom and she supported me in the healing process. Then I joined the Black Eyed Peas and we toured, and I was never back long enough to go househunting or even to think about it. So, technically, I have never moved out of my childhood home.

When I was young, my mom went on a game show and won $18,000, and so she bought the family a pool with a slide. They tore up our entire backyard! It was such a nice gesture from my mom, and we really enjoyed the pool throughout the years.

My parents did a nice job of bringing up the house value. There used to be three bedrooms and two bathrooms but, when I was about 10, my parents expanded the house on one side and now it has four bedrooms and three bathrooms. They created a master bedroom on the side of the house away from us kids, and away from my speakers! So I got to move into the big old master bedroom with its own bathroom. It still has the same wallpaper that I picked out when I was 10, which is obnoxious: big pink flowers — it’s like an acid trip when you walk in.

Basically, I’ve turned the whole room into a giant closet. There are six clothing racks in the room, and they are put in a very creative way so that when you walk into the room, you have to follow a maze in order to get to the bed. As I started acquiring more and more clothes and was sent wonderful gowns, I started buying racks. I’m not giving those clothes away! One complete wall is a closet, and all the other walls are lined with shelves of shoes. Everything is organised by colour and category.

My mom takes pride in the garden. She puts little statues of saints — because we are Catholic — in the midst of brush, green and flowers. As a gift I bought a whole home entertainment system — flatscreen, speakers, and so on — for the family room. When I was a child, I used to love this room because it’s where I could practise gymnastics. There was enough carpet space for me to try out my walkovers, and I had an audience in my family! I was also exposed to musicals at a very young age: my mom used to take me to the theatre. I would perform around the house and wanted to do it professionally. I was seven years old when I started in this business, eight when I was on [television series] Kids Incorporated.

Everyone wants to put their city on the map. I gave my old friends a shout out in Here I Come with the lyrics: “I represent Los Angeles city, Hacienda Heights is the vicinity.” Some of my Hacienda Heights friends are in my video for Glamorous. We did a throwback to a Hacienda Heights keg party, a backyard party, where there are barrels of beer and everyone brings a plastic cup.

Last year I travelled to 52 countries, so my main residence is in hotels. In December, I got to go home for the holidays: I stayed in pyjamas for a few days and wrapped presents with my mom and just felt a bit of normalcy for a second. It’s nice to come back to that reality, and I never want to lose that.

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