Kaushal Naik said he and his wife came to Valencia by FivePoint for the great outdoors.
Naik, 43, has lived in various places throughout Los Angeles County for over 20 years, including Long Beach, North Hollywood and Burbank. Naik’s wife, Anee, 39, has been in Southern California for about 12 years. The couple previously lived in Glendale, but they were looking to settle down somewhere calmer with more open space and cleaner air. When they drove by Valencia by FivePoint, they knew they had found something special.
“One of the first things we loved was that there were brand-new homes built on brand-new land,” Naik said. “You get a 360-degree view of mountains around. Nature is all around.”
But the views weren’t all they came to love and appreciate.
Whether they were living in Glendale, Burbank or North Hollywood, Naik said his wife would wake up every morning — for years — with “the sniffles.” And she’d sneeze five to 10 times. It was, Naik said, a morning ritual.
However, since moving to Valencia a little over two years ago, that “ritual” has ended.
“We moved here, and it just stopped,” Naik said. “There’s a big thing in terms of air quality, in terms of just the atmosphere and getting out of the smog.”
Both Naik and his wife come from the same small town in India — a place called Valsad in the state of Gujarat. It’s minutes from the beach, and Naik recalled spending much of his childhood walking and riding his bike to and from the beach. He also got used to running errands for his parents on foot or on his bike. In other words, he can’t get enough of walking and riding around.
He said he and his wife haven’t taken advantage of the electric bike subsidies that Valencia by FivePoint offers, but they’re thinking about it. For now, they just enjoy walking through the community.
The couple met through their fathers, who had become friends in India. In 2002, after Naik had been living in the United States, he’d gone back to India to visit his family and saw Anee for the first time.
The two got married, and they began a life together in America.
Both of them are in software development, working mostly from home.
But Naik said that even when he’s working, he’s enjoying nature. He can see the big Santa Clarita skies from the couple’s bedroom through the sliding glass doors that lead to their balcony. He even positioned his desk in the bedroom to face those doors for that very reason.
“Usually, people put their desks facing the wall,” he said. “I put it this way so that while I’m working, I can see the planes going by, the helicopters going by, the clouds. I love it.”
He especially likes being at his desk when it rains. He recalled that, when the couple moved into their home in September 2022, it rained quite a bit. It was an amazing time, he said. While admittedly not a painter, if he did put paint to canvas, he said he’d have some terrific landscapes to copy.
Naik referred to what he saw as an impressionist’s dream.
“You go to one spot at five different times of the day, and you can come up with five different paintings,” he said. “Each would be completely different with their own feel, their own moods. And I remember when it snowed. We’d go out, take pictures. At one point, we were surrounded by snow, and that was the most beautiful sight I’ve seen.”
Naik added that he and his wife enjoy walking from their house to Commerce Center Drive for a bird’s-eye view of Six Flags Magic Mountain. The two will occasionally go to the park for a few hours of fun — they got season passes and will pay visits with their nephews.
“The proximity is so good,” Naik said. “We do a couple of rides, we come home for lunch, and then we go back again.”
Some time back, during one of the couple’s hikes to the Iron Horse Trailhead, Naik said they came across some white goosefoot, a fast-growing annual plant that’s particularly common where they come from in India.
“This is very similar to spinach in India,” he said. “If you’re familiar with Indian cuisine, they make something called saag — it’s a spinach dish. The white goosefoot has actually better nutritional values and better benefits than spinach … We got a small cutting, and we’re now trying to grow it in our side yard. That was an amazing discovery that’s native to India, but we found it here.”
The longer Naik and his wife have lived in their home, the more they keep discovering about Valencia by FivePoint.
The goosefoot discovery prompted Naik’s wife to get into gardening. She’s since filled the side yard of their home with herbs, flowers and fruit trees. She recently learned about the community’s resident-run gardening club and is now looking to join.
The club, according to Valencia by FivePoint literature, welcomes experienced gardeners and beginners. Those with a green thumb can participate in seasonal harvests for everything from heirloom tomatoes to Armenian cucumbers to edible flowers.
Naik’s wife said she looks forward to expanding her gardening. Their own garden has a healthy variety of plants. During a visit to their home, the couple showed off their tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, peppermint, sweet limes and lemons.
As for other Valencia by FivePoint discoveries, Naik and his wife have been taking advantage of the community’s year-round farmer’s market every Sunday. There they find seasonal fruits, vegetables, artisan breads, handcrafted pastries and locally raised meats and eggs from California family farms.
“We like to squeeze our own orange juice,” Naik said. “So, we go to get oranges at the farmers market.”
The couple said they also take advantage of the community events — the movie nights in the summer, the pumpkin patch in the fall.
“Whatever they have over here,” Naik said, “we try to participate as much as possible.”
Ultimately, both said they feel they’ve found a place that’s conducive to the way they want to live. They’ve made Valencia their home.
To quote the phrase, Naik is convinced it’s a “breath of fresh air.”
“There’s a lot of light and air, at least in our home and around us,” he said. “You step out and you’re just surrounded by sunlight and nature.”
“Community Inspired” is a new editorial series focusing on people who are strengthening our community and essential to the future of the Santa Clarita Valley. The monthly series — and accompanying podcast — is presented by Valencia by FivePoint.
