View

I never thought much of living in a house with a view until I moved to the Meadowview area of Temecula in 1996. What's the big deal? I used to feel like Clark Griswold in "Vacation" when he is looking at the Grand Canyon impatiently waiting for his family to ooh and ah and then he wants to go.

We bought at the bottom of the last housing disaster and got a home with a view that I so miss. We bought it for $235,000 and sold it in 2007 . It looked exactly like the homes you see in Williamsburg, the white houses with black shutters. It was 3300 square feet and one of the saddest days of my life was moving out of that home.

The view was combination of meadow and city lights. It was so quiet you could forget you were only a few minutes from the mall and the freeway. There is white rail fencing all over Meadowview (it is horse country) and one section of the fence used to have these tiny burrowing owls. They were so adorable. One would sit on the fence and one would be in the little burrow. There also used to be turkey vultures. I remember the first time I saw one spreading his wings to dry them off after a rain. I almost crashed because he was sitting on the peak of one of the homes that overlooked the meadow. He had his wings completely spread out. It was like the condor exhibit at the zoo, you know where you stand with your arms spread out seeing how your "wing span" compared. They were the ugliest birds but I loved them. For some reason they left and the crows came. Nasty birds. I loved the small gray birds that would fly after them and peck them and harass the heck out of those pesky cawing scavengers.

I hunted for a rental to live in. It was so hard to look at rental homes all jammed together, everybody looking the same. All your backyard fences backed up to other backyard fences. The neighbors next door can look down from their second story balcony right into your yard. Beggars can't be choosers as the saying goes until I found this current house. I live on a corner so I only have one neighbor on one side and they keep to themselves and are nice people, there is no one behind me. Directly across the street are the backs of homes from the next street up, so no neighbors there really. And on the other corner is an elementary school. I love it. The moms drop off and pick up twice a day and are gone usually within 15 minutes. No hanging around, no after school activities.

So this is the view I have now out my back windows. No city lights but it is green and quiet. You can hear the coyotes hunting and we had a bobcat or mountain lion (nobody was sure) at the school across the street one day. Mmmm, that is a story for another post because it was a comedy of errors every way you sliced it.

I am going house hunting in the new few months (assuming I still have work) and I pray that I can find one in my price range with a view. I think we are headed for the bottom of the housing market in the next year here or so (another wave of foreclosures is in front of us) and maybe I can find something special.