Justa Vent

[boss mare]

I lived in a suburb outside of the Seattle area for 42 years. 14 of those years I had a cute house in a horse orentented area surrounded by non-horsey housing developements I loved that house I had a very very nice 4 stall barn with every amenity and turn-outs with no-mud footing an arena with sand and shredded rubber footing The house had a cool deck with an outdoor BBQ and hot tub All on one acre. I was the second owner
I sold it .... and moved over 100 miles away the person who bought it only was there for 1 1/2 years They were horsey... They sold to someone who bought it as investment property at the height of the housing bubble .... It is now a rental I went past it OMG It is a run-down dump with with travel trailers and cars on the property The garage door has fallen off/ removed and there is a tarp as a door now
I put my heart and soul into that house... That is just so sad.

[lhamo]

I'm sad for you, too, boss mare. I grew up on the eastside, too, and there used to be lovely horse pastures on the road up to our house. As development spread east, the land got too valuable to be saved for just horses, I guess, and many of the original owners subdivided and what went in was mostly pretty tacky McMansions. Where people proceeded to plant trees and hedges in order to create some privacy in what was basically an open field. 10+ years down the road, anyone driving by there now would probably never guess that that part of the hill used to be a lovely, open pasture with a beautiful view of Mt. Si. I am always sad when I think of how much work it must have been for the original homesteaders to clear out that pasture, and now it is basically chopped up into pieces and replanted with trees. Don't get me wrong -- I love forests, too! But you appreciate the wooded parts more when there is a bit of open space in between every once in awhile.

I'm sorry others didn't care for your house as you did, too. Sad indeed....

lhamo

[peggy]

You really can't go home again! A few years ago my husband and I were visiting in the part of the country where we lived when we first got married. Like most young marrieds we were poor as church mice, but the little (tiny) first house we rented was cute and we were in love. Well, our kids happened to be visiting too so we thought a stroll down memory lane was in order. That cute little house... was A SHED! Literally! It was a tractor shed! And kind of leaned too. :0! Of course the kids thought it was hilarious. Actually we did too, after a bit.

[loosechickens]

Even when the new owners take care of it, it can be a shock......the first time we went back to look at our Little House at Big Pond after we sold it, the shock of seeing the huge pine trees having been cut way back, a fake stone side wall of the house where the owner had ripped off our solar greenhouse (I guess matching the original redwood boards was too expensive, but the fake stone was quite jarring to the eye), and the beautiful bush at the corner of the house that turned a brilliant red every fall, gone, gone, gone, was hard.

We stopped in to visit (new owner had been our housesitter, then our tenant, and then had bought the house after we'd been gone nomading for more than five years), I almost wished I hadn't, because while it was very nicely kept, the sight of my pantry room, which once went into winter with 500+ jars of canned foods, plus tubs of bulk flours, grains and beans, etc., had been turned into quite a flossy, large bathroom right out of HGTV........oh, gosh, I mourned for my pantry room..........

But.....life goes on....if we'd stayed there, we'd have missed out on all these years of wonderful adventures, so I just treasure my pictures of the little house, nestled in its pine trees, with its little solar greenhouse on the one side open to the southern sun, as it was in "the old days", and wish the present owner well in all HIS ideas for the place.

I think it would be really hard, though, to see a much loved place having really fallen on hard times. At least the present owner of our place cherishes it, even if his expression of that is very different from our own.

[redfox]

My Goddaughter & her husband are living in the cottage I built, and they have utterly trashed it... It's a very small house, and he has a big collection of antiques, which they decided to squeeze into this tiny tiny place... it looks dreadful. Plus they never clean. When they bought it, from the person who bought it from me & really cared for it, I went back to my community for the weekend and cleaned it stem to stern, bought a new shower curtain, bath towels, and kitchen linens for them. I wanted to polish my little gem one more time (I installed custom made tiles throughout the bathroom, and maple cabinets I had made, which I finished). I wanted to weed the garden I had planted, etc.

A year later, it looked like a shack and the garden was upended. I met my Goddaughter when she was 8 months old, and watched her Mom raise slovenly children... Oh well. It was pretty hard to see it the first time I went back, but now, I know at it's her home, and if they want to live in squalor, well, they sure know how to do it! Their priorities are different than mine, and I still love them dearly.

I've gone on to create a lovely, calm, clean and beautiful home with my husband, and though I really miss my community and the little cottage I designed & built, I have awesome photos & memories...

[boss mare]

I'm sad for you, too, boss mare. I grew up on the eastside, too, and there used to be lovely horse pastures on the road up to our house. As development spread east, the land got too valuable to be saved for just horses, I guess, and many of the original owners subdivided and what went in was mostly pretty tacky McMansions. Where people proceeded to plant trees and hedges in order to create some privacy in what was basically an open field. 10+ years down the road, anyone driving by there now would probably never guess that that part of the hill used to be a lovely, open pasture with a beautiful view of Mt. Si. I am always sad when I think of how much work it must have been for the original homesteaders to clear out that pasture, and now it is basically chopped up into pieces and replanted with trees. Don't get me wrong -- I love forests, too! But you appreciate the wooded parts more when there is a bit of open space in between every once in awhile.

I'm sorry others didn't care for your house as you did, too. Sad indeed....

lhamo

THat area has changed so much I lived in the Bridle Trails area not Bridle Trails proper but close enough Right on the Redmond/Kirkland The house that my parents bought for 14K in 1973 on double lot in Kirkland was sold for over 1 million in 2004 just to be bulldozed and two Mc Mansions in it's place .... Those sold for just under 2 million a piece in 2005 now both of those house have " For Sale" signs and one of those signs was another sign added on that says "Price Reduced" it had a flyer in the little plexiglass box ... the asking price is about 600K... talk about being upside down

But the devleoper did keep the very old chestnut tree intact as did the owners my parents house was the last orginal house on the block... one by one they had been bought, bulldozed

Where MicroSoft is now... OMG that has spread all over... there are parts of it that used to be a chicken farm and several horse boarding operations

[AnneM]

When I was a kid, my family used to board horses at Pickering's in Issaquah, which is now where Costco is. :) The barn is still there, but it has been fixed up and is now used for the farmers' market.

We used to take our horses on overnight pack trips to the Plateau, which now is completely developed. We also used to ride our horses to the XXX (fast food place) in Issaquah, and tie them up outside. Can't do that any more. I think the traffic has increased by a factor of 10 since then.

I live just a few miles from Mt. Si now, just across I-90. It's beautiful here. I am lucky that we are close by the City of Seattle watershed, where no development is allowed.

[lhamo]

Funny there are so many of us eastside folk here! I grew up in Fall City. Yes, Issaquah and the Plateau have transformed beyond recognition. When we first moved out there, I-90 was just a two lane road. I used to ride my bike on the logging roads that are now SNoqualmie Ridge. Some of the changes have brought more convenience, and I appreciate the new diversity (get a kick out of it when we go out to eat in North Bend and now seem to be surrounded by as many Chinese-speaking families as we see in a typical restaurant in Beijing!). But the congestion is not fun and I don't like seeing so much cookie-cutter development.

lhamo

[boss mare]

When I was a kid, my family used to board horses at Pickering's in Issaquah, which is now where Costco is. :) The barn is still there, but it has been fixed up and is now used for the farmers' market.

We used to take our horses on overnight pack trips to the Plateau, which now is completely developed. We also used to ride our horses to the XXX (fast food place) in Issaquah, and tie them up outside. Can't do that any more. I think the traffic has increased by a factor of 10 since then

I live just a few miles from Mt. Si now, just across I-90. It's beautiful here. I am lucky that we are close by the City of Seattle watershed, where no development is allowed.

Wow Six Degrees Of Separation

In the early 1980's I kept my horses on Newport Way at Farrar's ( off and on for years and years I would ride my horses to Mc Donald's in Eastgate and go thorugh the drive through on my horses ) I rented a house for a short while that was on the base of Squak Mountain and could ride forever without seeing a soul. THat area is still a hiking area but does not hold the same magic as it did back then when it was very over grown. What is now called the " Bus Trail" was very sad now... I would ride with my friends up there you could tell that there was something in the bushes and trees but it was so dense that you could not tell if is was a bus, a train or what it was... That was the cool part.. Just thinking about *what* is that thing ?? I did also have them at Bill and Eleanor Farnum's by BCC and on the plateau kitty corner from Pine Lake Park down the road from Red Gate There is a grade school there now. When I left the fininishing touches were being put on the Safeway Remember when Rock Meadow was built? I moved my horses back to the Bridle Trails area in the mid to late 1980's where I stayed until 2003 and moved south to Chehalis

I had a horse leased out then later gave to a lesson/boarding barn what was then called Elk Run in North Bend and then I also remember a place called Mt Si Stables in the 1970's/80's I think that last name of the people who owned that were named Hawk

[Mrs-M]

Sadly, this is the outcome of so many previously loved and cherished properties/homes. For many, home is simply a place to hang ones hat... Try and see it as their loss.

[boss mare]

Funny there are so many of us eastside folk here! I grew up in Fall City. Yes, Issaquah and the Plateau have transformed beyond recognition. When we first moved out there, I-90 was just a two lane road. I used to ride my bike on the logging roads that are now SNoqualmie Ridge. Some of the changes have brought more convenience, and I appreciate the new diversity (get a kick out of it when we go out to eat in North Bend and now seem to be surrounded by as many Chinese-speaking families as we see in a typical restaurant in Beijing!). But the congestion is not fun and I don't like seeing so much cookie-cutter development.

lhamo
MY mother grew up in Carnation ( Tolt High School 1959 ) When I was a kid we would go visit her friends this was around 1966 to the mid 1990's

[JaneV2.0]

I just drove through Bridle Trails last week on my way to Bellevue, thinking how lovely it was with all the trees and still some pastureland. It's hard to drive anywhere around here without encountering soul-bracing beauty.

(Cookie-cutter developments have ruined Issaquah. Such a dramatic setting; they could have done far, far better.)

[boss mare]

Even when the new owners take care of it, it can be a shock......the first time we went back to look at our Little House at Big Pond after we sold it, the shock of seeing the huge pine trees having been cut way back, a fake stone side wall of the house where the owner had ripped off our solar greenhouse (I guess matching the original redwood boards was too expensive, but the fake stone was quite jarring to the eye), and the beautiful bush at the corner of the house that turned a brilliant red every fall, gone, gone, gone, was hard.

We stopped in to visit (new owner had been our housesitter, then our tenant, and then had bought the house after we'd been gone nomading for more than five years), I almost wished I hadn't, because while it was very nicely kept, the sight of my pantry room, which once went into winter with 500+ jars of canned foods, plus tubs of bulk flours, grains and beans, etc., had been turned into quite a flossy, large bathroom right out of HGTV........oh, gosh, I mourned for my pantry room..........

But.....life goes on....if we'd stayed there, we'd have missed out on all these years of wonderful adventures, so I just treasure my pictures of the little house, nestled in its pine trees, with its little solar greenhouse on the one side open to the southern sun, as it was in "the old days", and wish the present owner well in all HIS ideas for the place.

I think it would be really hard, though, to see a much loved place having really fallen on hard times. At least the present owner of our place cherishes it, even if his expression of that is very different from our own.

I know the feeling about making changes to houses.. The house that I was talking about was not set up as horse property when I bought it in 1989 I told the lady who owned it what I had in mind she thought it was great her adult childern all had horses I spoke to the neighbors and everyone had no problem with me having a barn and bringing horses in The current place I have I told them that I was going to have a barn and indoor arena that is 84x120 other than that I have only changed the flower beds and vegatble garden to different places

[redfox]

We quite clearly need to have a Puget Sound meet-up!

[boss mare]

Hey Red sent you an e mail through your profile did you get it ?

[Gregg]

Managed to drive by the house I grew up in last year. It looks fairly well kept up, but very....weathered. Of course, 35 years later, so do I. The truly sad part was that the giant elm tree in the back yard that I basically grew up sitting in (great tree house) was gone and a rather plain Jane 2 car detached garage was in its place. Life goes on...

[pony mom]

Five years ago I moved out of the house I lived in for my first forty years. We keep in touch with our former neighbors and have heard how bad our house is now. When we were there, it was the cutest in the neighborhood--people used to stop by and tell us. Since the day we moved out I've never been back. It'll just break my heart, since my parents put so much hard work and love and money into it. They've seen it since and say it doesn't bother them, but it must.

Here in NJ, so much land has been developed over the years. Quite a few of the barns where I rode or boarded are gone. The farms that are being built are large equestrian center type places, with large barns and huge indoor arenas, with large monthly boarding fees. Most are geared towards horseshow people with money. The smaller farmettes (I board at one) are usually surrouned by non-horsey people who want to move to the country and live in McMansions. They're the first to complain about the smelly horses and the flies. They also have the dogs that run loose, kids trespassing on the property, ATV riding on farmland....more trouble than the horses.

In my sort of rural area, there should be someone to inspect farm properties. Old barns ready to collapse, rusting machinery in fields with horses and cows. and the fencing!! A rusty old wire one foot high off the ground around the property (with little strips of cloth attached..ooh! that'll keep the animals safe!). Horses get loose and are hit/killed by cars, horses/ponies/llamas attacked by bears/coyotes/loose dogs. People are so ignorant and irresponsible.

Whew! Venting feels great.

[boss mare]

Five years ago I moved out of the house I lived in for my first forty years. We keep in touch with our former neighbors and have heard how bad our house is now. When we were there, it was the cutest in the neighborhood--people used to stop by and tell us. Since the day we moved out I've never been back. It'll just break my heart, since my parents put so much hard work and love and money into it. They've seen it since and say it doesn't bother them, but it must.

Here in NJ, so much land has been developed over the years. Quite a few of the barns where I rode or boarded are gone. The farms that are being built are large equestrian center type places, with large barns and huge indoor arenas, with large monthly boarding fees. Most are geared towards horseshow people with money. The smaller farmettes (I board at one) are usually surrouned by non-horsey people who want to move to the country and live in McMansions. They're the first to complain about the smelly horses and the flies. They also have the dogs that run loose, kids trespassing on the property, ATV riding on farmland....more trouble than the horses.

In my sort of rural area, there should be someone to inspect farm properties. Old barns ready to collapse, rusting machinery in fields with horses and cows. and the fencing!! A rusty old wire one foot high off the ground around the property (with little strips of cloth attached..ooh! that'll keep the animals safe!). Horses get loose and are hit/killed by cars, horses/ponies/llamas attacked by bears/coyotes/loose dogs. People are so ignorant and irresponsible.

Whew! Venting feels great.

Well at least there are horse places going in... even if they are training barns LOL The area that I am venting about has lost 6 horse faculites totaling an easy 300 stalls and there are ginormus housing develpoments in their place with very strict HOA rules. 3 more have been sold and are sitting vacant or have trainers/boarders in there month to month until they start bulldozing.

[boss mare]

I will be updating this with a new post