Few people would be able to define why they are attracted to a certain view.  Yet we often know when a view has us hooked.

Some views like the one to the left have broad appeal.  I have not seen anyone who did not enjoy seeing this panorama of the White Oak River just a few miles up river from the Intracoastal Waterway.

While we often are unable to become really familiar with a view by seeing it in different light, with today's real estate market, there are some views which we have seen in just about every light.

I have been really fortunate in my life to have a good view at the breakfast table for most of my adult life.

Just after graduating from college, I lived in an old farmhouse on the shores of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia. 

It was actually my first real estate experience, and the beginning of a career that led me to an Angus operation with over 200 head of cattle.  When we had our cattle spread, we could sit on the front porch and look across the wooded hillsides north of Fredericton, New Brunswick.  In the fall or after a snowstorm, it was a spectacular view.

After we left the farm in 1984 and moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia to work for Apple Computer, we had this great view out our bedroom window of Halifax harbor.  My office downtown on Barrington Street was on the sixteenth floor of what was then the Toronto Dominion buidling. The walls of the office were glass with the harbor on one side and the Halifax Citadel on the other side.  It was beyond spectacular.

When we moved with Apple back to the states, we first spent two years in Columbia, Md. where we had no view except the tall trees surrounding our home.  I have often wondered if the lack of view was why we only lasted for two years in Columbia.

After Columbia, we spent the next twenty years on a side of a mountain overlooking Roanoke, Virginia. It is an amazing spot for a view and for taking pictures. I have a website with many of my best sunrise shots from the years since digital cameras have been available.  I could roll out of the bed in our mainfloor master and stagger onto the deck to take those early morning pictures and then slide back into a warm bed.

It was only after the renewal of a lifelong love affair with the North Carolina coast that I came down from our mountain.  As many folks know, finding an affordable water view on the coast is a real challenge.  It took us almost three years, but the view from our deck (and my upstairs office) is definitely worth it.

Being able to work and look at the river is a real treat.  While we do not have a view as spectacular as the one at the beginning of this post, I am pretty happy with where we are in Bluewater Cove.  Being ten minutes from the Intracoastal Waterway by boat and across the cul de sac from the community swimming pool has its advantages.

While our view at the coast is not the forty mile view that we have in Roanoke, I can just ride my bike out of the garage to get my morning exercise. Besides being able to drop the skiff into the water at the push of a button, I can also slide my kayak into the water from my own yard.  Those are advantages that are hard to beat.

We have a pretty special home on the coast, but everytime I show the house which has the view above, I wonder if the view could have seduced me if the house had been available when we were looking.  It's a much smaller home, and there is no swimming pool at my doorstep, but that view is almost intoxicating.  It was probably the view that hooked me on our Roanoke home so I have to conclude that I am susceptible.

I was up at the house with a view the other day taking some pictures in preparation for the Crystal Coast Showcase of Homes which takes place this weekend.  I think there are 300 homes scheduled for to be open for tours.

I will be doing my part by spending six hours on Sunday hosting an open house at the house with a view.  If nothing else, perhaps I will get my fill of the view and some more great pictures.  I am hoping to have a special setting to write a few posts for the Crystal Coast Living Blog that I am doing for our company.