Decorating & Renovating
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Does your home have a view?
One of the drawbacks to our home is no great view--of nature, of a skyline, of anything. We live in a super convenient spot with easy access to restaurants and mass transportation. We also live off a major street in our area with lots of people walking by. We have average size windows to boot in our little colonial. For privacy reasons, we often have our blinds drawn, but even when they are open there is no great view. Our backyard is tiny and nothing to look at either 
So, do you have a great view from your home? We don't, and I feel like I am missing an important connection to nature. When we are in our house, it is pretty insular.
Re: Does your home have a view?
Hell yes!
It's the best about our house! My house maybe on the simple side but the view is amazing!
We actually purposely set our house in a way that we have a good view out of 99% of our windows.
It's a lot of hayfield, cornfield and barnyard but it's awesome!
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We don't have a great view from the house (from the front we look out at the house across the street) but if we're close to a greenbelt and a big gulch thing (which got us a special fire zone designation recently. Yay us. :-/) so we don't have to go far for nature.
I've been working on the front and backyard, though, so while they're small they will be mighty :-) I've been working on a butterfly garden in the back since last fall. It's coming along bit by slow agonizing painful hard working bit. I'll be a gardener yet!
I also just planted 5 pots with some colorful annuals and it made a HUGE difference on the patio portion of the yard.
Our house has a ton of windows that face the backyard, where there's the most amazing landscaping (by the previous owners, I should mention -- although I am trying my best to keep it up!). I also usually have our blinds closed just because that's how I feel most comfortable, but when I remember to open them on a sunny day, it's amazing.
So you might price out what it might cost to landscape your backyard (either using a landscaping company or DIYing), if that's something that might work for you.
Right now, it's not bad for a duplex - we're right next to a small wooded area, so no neighbors to the south and a lot of trees.
In a few months? We'll be on 5 wooded acres with a hayfield across the street. (There are people building on 20 acres sort of across the street from me - I think I'll only be able to see the back of their house and their pond.)
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I don't think I could ever buy another house without a view again. We bought our current house solely because the view (it's on a lake and pretty private).
Our next house will be on an even bigger body of water. I think it makes such a difference!
Across the street from the front is a wooded area, and we have a deep, pretty cute back yard but there's an apartment building way back there (I keep talking about planting tall evergreens to block it but just haven't done it yet). Our area doesn't offer too much in regards to views (besides woods and streams here and there) but it's bustling, and the perfect location for accessing all of the freeways and centrally located. It's a good trade for us.
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We back to up to a creek. It's the best part of our house b/c our side neighbors are closer than I would like.
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Yes! A little over a month ago we closed on our new house that has an amazing view. Our backyard looks at wetlands and the closest houses are pretty far out there. There's all kinds of birds and animals that we love to see during the day. There's also amazing sunsets most nights. We moved from an area that most of the windows looked at a brick wall. We paid a lot premium to get the view because it meant that much to us.
We really don't; however, I wish I had taken a picture of our backyard when we moved in so you could see how we sort of created our own view.
DH planted bamboo (clumping, NOT running) along the perimeter. That, coupled with some trees that have popped up in the ditch area behind our fence, have made our fence all but invisible and it's just lots of leafy green. It's really nice to look at, actually, instead of just a yard with grass and a fence.
I recommend the bamboo if you have the right climate. I was completely against it at first but we've had it for several years now and while it has gotten bigger just like any other plant, we have had zero issues with it spreading outside of the flower beds (new shoots come up right next to the clump, like within 2 inches) and NONE has grown in our neighbors yards.
If my neighbor's windows are open, I have a view into their house since it's like 6 feet away from our house.
So, no, we don't have much for views, but we try to make our tiny yard look nice and our neighbor's mostly have nice yards too. It's a trade off to live in a city that I don't mind.
Nope, no view. Just our surburban subdivision yard.
I don't have the kind of house that people ooh and ahh over. It's ok.
I don't need my yard to give me a connection to nature. I go backpacking to get that.
Out the front, we have a beautiful view of town; we're on the side of a hill and our house sits a little higher than most on the street, so even though we have a tiny house, it's high up in the air. Out the back, we're facing into the hill, so there's no overlook, but we have redwoods and a few other trees, out there, so it feels very private and nature-y. Out the two sides, we're only a driveway's width away from our neighbor's homes, so those views aren't too great.
Is there something you could do with your back yard to spruce it up a little? Even if it's little, there are lovely things you can do with vertical plantings (Boston ivy on a fench, e.g.), containers and statuary. Also, adding things like hummingbird feeders and/or squirrel feeders could make you feel more like looking out the back. I use lace curtains on the front of our house because they do allow for some privacy, but they dont' block the view. After dark, you can see through them pretty well, but our neighborhood doesn't have much traffic, so I don't worry about it too much. I used to have roman shades behind them so that I could close them at night, but I ended up never opening them to see the view, so I took them down.
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Not really. But we live in an older neighborhood with a lot of trees so if we keep the bottom half of the shutter closed all we see out the top is trees. Does that count? LOL
We had a great view in our old condo. We were basically in a cluster of highrises in the middle of the woods. We were on the sixth floor and had a great view of treetops and a lake, and on the fourth of July we could see fireworks all over the horizon. We had a great vantage point for storms rolling in too. I really miss the view.
We have the "treehouse" view that a pp mentioned. From the windows in the back of the house (which is where all of our main living areas are located), is nothing but trees. We have a daylight basement, so the upper two levels are elevated so you are literally in the trees. I love my trees...so beautiful in the fall especially!
Out the front, we see our neighbor's house (and her beautiful landscaping) along with the rest of our cul-de-sac.
It works for me
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Our current house is in a older 70s subdivision, so lots of nice big trees. We happen to have a pretty decent spot though, as our lot drops off in the back with as a woods to a pond. So we don't have any rear neighbors and the summertime night noises are 'usually' soothing. (except when a cicada decides to reside in the tree right there....or the geese in the pond are trying to out honk eachother!
Our new lot is across from a lake, very wooded and up on a hill. So we are hoping to have the front exposed (garage in basement) and lots of decks to utilize our lot. And a 3rd story "lookout" to get views over the trees of the lake. ...that is...until our estimates come back!