nooks 57

I have lived in NS for 2 years after 27 years in Ontario. You have chosen one of the smaller provinces to live. People are friendly and the climate is better than Ontario although we do get Noreasters and occasional hurrucanes. We pay more tax than most of Canada as the population is only 900,000. Education is great for the kids but healthcare is poor with large waiting lists and a lack of family physicians. House prices are very affordable. best of luck.

nooks 57

new Ikea opens in Dartmouth in sept!

Vulcanoid

As I said - my earlier comment was based on a profoundly different amount of stuff. I don't doubt for a moment that if you've got a house-worth of stuff, it's worth it - which yes, I should have realised from the comments about schools etc, which imply a family.

My personal experience was rather different, because about $800 (checked, including tax) would replace every piece of furniture I own, which would cost about £5k to move over. Totally not worth it. Young people in one-bedroom apartments have rather less stuff than families I totally agree that if you have enough stuff to make a container necessary, you should fill it to the brim. I'm personally on the verge of whether or not a container is needed at all, so abandoning a few bulky items is much cheaper. This is probably unusual.

BristolUK

I hate threads like this.

They remind me how much money I wasted bringing stuff over compared to how much cheaper it was to furnish the whole house with furniture and appliances mostly from Leons and a few things from mail order Ikea and Future Shop.

hrf197

Totally agree to all you've said, but in case you're interested they're building an ikea in Dartmouth currently! Hooray!

hrf197

I think they said $5k, but it wasn't a proper one. As in, they haven't looked at the house contents, we've just had a preliminary conversation. But I'd expected it to be a lot more than that.

hrf197

Thank you - and great to hear of someone who has moved there. Most of the people I speak to here seem to be going to BC! We're really happy with the choice. Love the coastline, and people seem really friendly.

Howefamily

Five CAD?
We paid about GBP4k 6 years ago.....
Interestingly less than $35k (must be the sea versus road)

Atlantic Xpat

Yes, but thats still a 12 hr drive, 8 hr ferry crossing and another 8hr drive for me. I like IKEA but not that much. I believe they are going to open a distribution poibt in St John's - not a store- but a place where you can get your online order delivered to for a flat fee.

hrf197

Sorry meant GBP!

DandNHill

My advice would be to make sure you're happy where you're living before you buy.

That quaint cottage in the middle of nowhere is cute until you feel isolated and want to move. Forgot about how much you would need to pay in commission to sell (usually 5%) but think more about how long you might need to wait!

Do you know viewpoint.ca? It's a great tool to look at houses for sale. Can give you an insight in to how long houses can take to sell in more rural areas. Don't be shocked when in some cases in can be in excess of two years!

BristolUK

We have one of those here.

Depending on what you order it may not be the advantage it seems.

I did a pretend order for something a few weeks ago. The saving involved in pick-up rather than home delivery would be swallowed up by getting to the out of town pick up point and back home.

Of course, this is because I don't drive and with no bus going there it would involve a taxi both ways - assuming whatever I was collecting would go in one of the SUV types.

But even if you drive, you may not have a vehicle big enough and hiring costs may similarly wipe out the saving.

scilly

Do be aware that wood furniture, especially antiques, moved to Canada from the UK often do not fare well. It tends to be a drier atmosphere in houses here.

There was a similar thread to this a few weeks ago, and someone (??Stinkypup?) commented that they had ended up replacing much of the furniture they brought.

You might also find that size of furniture and size of rooms here may not match up.

Don't even think of bringing a wardrobe, if you still have such an item ............. all houses seem to have built-in closets in all bedrooms. At least, I have never been in a house that has not had them, and I've been here almost 49 years.

scilly

This is the thread I was thinking of ..........

http://britishexpats.com/forum/canad...ing-bc-897109/

while the OP was asking specifically about moving to BC, there are some very good suggestions on there .......... such as forget about bringing any kitchen appliances or washer dryers etc. The vast majority of houses come with them.

Also .......... don't refer to them as "white goods", Canadians won't understand what you're talking about!

Make sure any garden tools are well cleaned, not a speck of dirt on them.


Anyway, read that thread!

hrf197

Thanks - this looks really useful. And wouldn't have even thought about the dirt on garden tools!