Crestline Local's Insider Guide: Crestline Village and Homes in Crestline Village, Part 1

Crestline Local's Insider Guide to: Crestline Village and homes in Crestline Village are a close community of older homes, many that were built in the early 20th century. Many are cabins that were built for people who came up here to the mountains to live while they worked at the saw mills and other forestry activities, eventually used for vacation homes and now mainly full time living. Crestline Villageis made up of a single street through town with shops and restaurants on either side, along with a post office, grocery store, and hardware store that seem to reflect the smallness of ourit as well as the more laid back lifestyle. There isn't a single stoplight to be found, and most days the only light traffic that occurs is when the local school bus drives through town to drop off the kids from school.

The cabins in Crestline Village are usually smaller as far as square footage goes, with many that have been added onto at some point in the past. It's not surprising to walk through a Village house and wonder what the previous owners were thinking when they built it or added onto it! Due to the nature of these cabins being as old as some of them are, many have not been updated at all as far as current building standards and codes, and some do need work. I have seen cabins in the village that were partially built onto a pile of local rocks that were mortared together to make up the foundation. Many do not have a true foundation of a concrete slab, and are built on a pier and post constructions, with partial masonry or the ever favorite pile of rocks.

Since there was no such thing as central airback in the day, most homes up here do not have air conditioning. Nor do you really need it here in Crestline and elsewhere on the mountain if you have nice windows that you can leave open, with some ceiling fans and maybe a fan in the window to create a lovely cross breeze. In the summertime, our temperatures are mostly 20 degrees cooler than elsewhere in the Inland Empire and Orange county. It is a pleasure to come up where it's always cooler!

As far as heating, these cabins have wood burning stoves or regular brick or rock fireplaces, and many have been updated to include gas furnaces. With winter temperatures dipping into the teens on the coldest winters, you need to make sure your Crestline Cabin has a good heat source, and if it's an older cabin, plenty of insulation and other upgrades like dual pane windows and weatherstripping. It's important to make sure your heat stays in your home! Our cabin didn't have a lick of insulation when we first bought it, and our first winter gas bills were in the high $200 range for a 960 square foot home! The very next summer we insulated the basement and have saved literally hundreds of dollars in only one season!

Speaking of basements, many Crestline Village cabins have a basement or a build up. The difference is that a basement is finished off into a usable space, usually accessible from the interior of the home. A build up is just the space beneath the cabin, and is usually a dirt floor used for storage. MAKE SURE THIS SPACE IS ALWAYS INSULATED. You lose a ton of heat into the underside of your cabin if you do not. Obviously a finished basement that can be used as extra living space will add money to your home.

Crestline Village living is very simple, but we have everything here for the full-timer or part-timer. There is a grocery store called Goodwins that has been serving the community for decades. We have a bowling alley that serves great pizza and buffalo chicken wings and is fun to go to on a Friday, or any evening! The alley just opened up a Subway also, which has been very busy! We have a lot of really neat antique stores that I've got a lot of my furniture from, as well as an excellent used book store. There are various business, CPA, attorney, real estate, tanning salon, deli, and several very good restaurants.

I have never had a bad meal here in Crestline Villageat any of the restaurants. They are all really good! We have a Mexican food place called Cocina de Tony's that has a great outdoor lakeview seating area, several American-style diners: Crestline Cafe, Loose Caboose, and Hungry Bear Restaurant, a Chinese food restaurant called Mandarin Gardens, an Italian restaurant called Francescos, The A Burger which makes great burgers and shakes, a Round Table Pizza, and two fast food places Subway and McDonalds. There are two coffee shops, Paradise Coffe and Lake Gregory Coffee Co. The latter during the summertime has their Al Fresco Fridays where they have good happy hour style food and you can grab a cold beer, glass of wine or coffee beverage. It's nice to sit outside and people watch!

This is only part one. Crestline Village is a small town, but our simple way of life up here has more to offer! Make sure you look for part 2!

And as always if you are looking for more information or would like lists of homes that are available for sale here in Crestline and Crestline Village, please email me at steeleofalifetime@gmail.com or call! Please also visit my websites at www.HomesForSaleinCrestline.com and www.CrestlineForeclosures.com.

Take care and God bless!

Amy

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