Abbotsford - information
 

My husband is just about to move into our new house in Abbotsford, B.C.
Has anyone who has lived there/lives there currently got any information that might be useful or any local advice? My OH is working in Langley.
(Please post constructive comments only - we are only renting there but in any case we will have to live there for some while even if it isn't the best of areas and now the die is cast we would like to think positively!)
Thanks in advance for your help

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Hello! Is there anything specific you'd particularly like to know? We're moving to Langley in June (house sale pending...) and have friends in both Abbotsford and Langley, so we can always ask them on your behalf! Let me know and I'll see what I can find out! (You can always PM a list of questions and I'll send them over...)

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Hi,
We lived in Abbotsford for a year back in 2008 -2009 and are moving back again this summer. We really liked it there. If you need to know anything specific, I can try and help.

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Well, one thing that has just cropped up unexpectedly is that we now have a one bedroom suite to rent out as part of our house rental! So, if you know of any Expats or local forums or groups who I might be able to contact to find a nice, normal working tenant, I would be very happy to find out!:D
(The daughter of a work colleague who had agreed to rent it had some transport issues with getting to college and had to back out, but we loved and wanted the house so much we decided to carry the rent of the whole house until we could find a tenant.)
Other than that, which is my current priority, anything that you feel is relevant about the area.
You must have liked it a lot to go back, so that in itself is positive.:)

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Some potential short term tennats ;)
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=716761

I'm over that way later today so will let you know if it has improved since the last time :p

The countryside out there is very nice though.

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

I'm afraid I don't know of anyone but you could always see if Abbotsford Hospital has somewhere that they advertise for rentals for nurses or if it is anywhere near UFV (local university) as I remember seeing some rental adverts on a notice board whilst there. I'll certainly keep an ear out anyway.
Yes, we did like Abbotsford alot. It has its good and bad areas like any other town guess but we liked it. When are you going out?

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Hi - we moved to Abbotsford in February this year. I lived here when my family when I was just 12 years old and did high school and college here before going to UBC and then moving back to England for 20 years. Do you have children? We have 3 and that was one of the motivators for us moving here. Which side of Abbotsford is your house? I had forgotten how beautiful the scenery is around here, but not forgotten how it RAINS when it RAINS! Fortunately the Summer is usually guaranteed (not like England). You will be amazed how many people you meet here (particularly at the hospital) who are either from the UK or have a close relative (parent, sibling) in the UK which is nice.

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

That's two votes for the hospital as a place to find a tenant, then!
Thanks for that!
My husband is already there, wareeswally. I am hoping to go out in July, but you know how these things go - delays, delays, delays!
I will be happy to get there, though. I am sending the furniture in June so my husband should have sorted the consignment out by the time I get there anyway.:D
Serves him right as I have been busting my buns packing the whole thing on my own:p

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Oh I don't envy you packing youself - its such a task!!
We are moving out in July too!!

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Thanks for that, el_richo, although I think it will be too small for the family.
Yes, the countryside is lovely - we are renting 40 acres of it:D But it is a hell of a job to mow the bit of it with no trees (so I have heard from my hard-working hubby:rofl:)

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Yes it is. It's firmly in bible belt and drug gang territory, but it's got easy access to the highway.

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Yep, it is a really big job, but I am doing my bit this side of the Atlantic and my husband is doing his bit on the Canadian side. I can't let him down:)
I didn't realise how many CDs we had, though:ohmy:
I have discovered vacuum bags and I have been suctioning bedding and clothing for what seems like days, now. I was always a great packer (you should see my freezer! My husband says it is like the stonework at Machu Pichu - you can't get a knife blade between the contents!) But this has forced me to take the concept of economical packing to new extremes:lol::lol:.

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Yep? Well we are neither, so maybe we'll just stand on the sidelines and referee:D.
I have a whistle!:thumbup:
They also said that about the last place we lived in the UK and it was actually fine. The information was a reputation and those are always slightly out of date. There used to be some grow-ops around the area, but they were closed down and once they got very harassed they moved on.
The house down the road used to be a grow-op but it was several years ago. The people who live there now, a very nice German man and his Canadian wife went over to see my husband at the weekend to introduce themselves and they were lovely.
We speak as we find.

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

And they have a huge Winners store for all the local fashion wants :thumbup:

And cheap Petrol

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Somebody near you will have a grow op. 100% guaranteed.

I've only been to Abbortsford a few times. There's a nice lake and it seems ok in the nondescript way that all fraser valley towns do. Abbortsford is (or was) murder capital of Canada.

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There's a station on the lougheed hwy across the border into mission which has petrol at 1.22 or something ridiculous. It's over 1.40 here in MR - which is no better than downtown.

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

You could say the first bit about loads of places, including the most seemingly idyllic and refined villages.
One of the poshest and most expensive villages in my area of the UK some time ago was shocked to the core when a police raid found a lovely barn was actually a crystal meth factory:eek: No-one who lived there had a clue.

Re- the second comment, our nearest city is Nottingham. 'Nuff said.

Didn't I ask for positive comments in my first post of this thread? Maybe you missed that one!:)

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Fantastic views and, er, ... you said it is very rural so it must be quite a long way from Abby itself.

I guess that's not really helpful.

PS John Deere is your OH's friend.

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Don't forget those who live in Abbotsford have Mission close by if they're in need of culture and the finer points of life :thumbup:

Also, Manning Park is about 1.5hrs away and it's lovely there, or 3 or so hours to beautiful wine country. Silver lining and all that ;)

40 acres in Abbotsford, just make sure you're careful with food containers, leftovers, womens underwear, etc :unsure:

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Silverdale? The area with 3 of them next to each other? I always fill up there when we're out. Think it's to do with less taxes or something.

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Other side of the Highway and 40 acres:)
OH got to work in 20 minutes in Langley, so commute is very easy.
Yep, a ride-on mower would be great, but due to far too many lunches out with work colleagues and the need to buy furniture, my OH has decided that finances and his inflating paunch demand that he push the manual one round for a few weeks until he has the body of an Adonis once more:wink_smile:

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

The scale of the grow-op problem in BC is just a tiny bit higher than in the UK; especially in border towns like Abbortsford. I lived in Nottingham for a long time, and it's not the same; though I did work in a pub once where the gunnies turned up and beat somebody up. As far as I know Nottingham never saw an all out drugs war with practically daily shoot outs and killings between gangs.

On the positive side, the bacon brothers (who where the main cause of that shenanigans) got arrested and it's all calmed down a bit since last year.

Honestly, I have the same lifestyle you are about to have. I live on an acreage in Maple Ridge and the reason I live here isn't that I like maple ridge (it's friendlier than downtown and is in nice countryside), it's because I really like the peace and quiet and I have a vastly reduced necessity to socially interact with people.

Still, there are probably plenty of houses in MR that are grow-ops. It's not just the odd one here and there either - it's a significant percentage of the rural housing stock. You are right that they mostly don't draw attention to themselves and you'd never know they were there. But you get occasional grow-rips, and sometimes the criminals aren't that smart and go to the wrong house.

Do you know the history of the house you are renting? Who rented it before etc? I'd want to know that before living on an acreage in BC. You really don't want to be in or next to one that was used as a grow-op in the past.

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Like I said.......

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Fair enough. Well it's in nice countryside and it's got a highway. There isn't anything else to say about abbortsford that you can't say about mission, chilliwack, etc etc etc.

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Well, shoot me, but I think there's a fine line between "constructive responses only" and "I want to be in denial with my head in the sand"

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Village life in the UK is very different to that in rural BC. Grow ops do appear to be a very popular hobby.

I think for me, the main positives for Abbotsford are not Abbotsford itself. I think the core isn't very nice but the countryside around it can be very nice indeed. Positives for me are proximity to other areas such as Manning Park, Okanagan, Bellingham Airport in the US for cheap-ish US flights, US National Parks, the view of Mount Baker on a clear day, and access to highway #1.

I also believe it used to be the murder capital of Canada (per capita) and was very high on the theft list, but not sure if this has dropped after the gang crackdown.

40 Acres out there will be ace though :thumbup:

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Then you are only a short trip (and a border crossing) from the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. That is definitely a positive.

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Sad but true. Two innocent people were gunned down in a rural property near Cranbrook BC early last year. Their crime? They were renting a property where the previous incumbents had been 'active participants' in the local drug dealing scene & who'd obviously trodden on the toes of peers in the dealing scene.

To think, when you do a search on a UK property, its to check the local farmer doesn't have grazing rights in your back yard every second Tuesday or other such covenants. :confused:

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Yeah, I only just realized that helcat12 was simply after validation.

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

I know of people who run such grow ops, or rather used to in the abby/mission/whack area. The more rural areas are perfect for that kind of thing.

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I'd agree with this. If you live out in a rural area of abbotford, then what the actual town is like is of less concern. Mind you downtown abbotsford, was like a gong show last time I went through.

Marijuana production is estimated to be the 3rd largest part of the BC economy !! Take that and the foreign money out and it'd be interesting to see what the place would be like.

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Not validation; information that is useful to me.
And you know the old maxim;
"If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

There are people who have made some positive comments, so not everyone feels like you do.
I would respectfully ask that you follow the saying in this case and if all you have are scary stories and criticisms, whether of my home-to-be or of me, just pass on by with a smug smile in the certain knowledge that I am a fool and you are right................

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

I'll be sure to tell my husband - especially about the women's underwear:thumbsup:

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Actually, those two sentences contradict each other, and as it turned out, validation is what you wanted.

Useful information might be information that isn't positive. You're not really looking for useful information. You're looking for rose-tinted Abby stories.

As for the second maxim: hahahahaha. There are plenty of times when I think you have to stand up and tell the truth, even if it isn't 'nice'. Truth over nice any day imo. Truthfully? Abby is kinda pretty, but there's a reason it's so cheap. Maybe you should think about that.

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

40 acres....Jesus

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

Don't patronise me by telling me what I want.:frown:
I asked for what I wanted and explained why. You clearly don't get that or choose in your self-important way to ignore it.
I do not need your version of what you call "the truth".It is your opinion and you are very arrogant to think it is anything else.
The maxim holds true especially for people like you who think the world deserves their opinion, whether they are asked for it or not.
It doesn't and you were not asked.
Keep it to yourself unless you are asked for it and in this case I didn't ask for it - I asked for answers to my original post and if you had bothered to read it and respect my query, you wouldn't have posted at all.
I am not going to suddenly decide to live somewhere else because you don't think much of where I have chosen to live.
Maybe you should think about why you seem to have the unstoppable urge to throw your negative opinion at another poster who specifically asked for people to refrain from such comments and then assume an air of repugnant superiority when I politely tell such posters as you to answer the thread as posted or butt out?

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

I read of one where they had a HUGE op in the Abbotsford area where they double crossed the Hells Angels in a few deals. The Angels vowed revenge but last i heard the owners of the grow-op recently walked away from their 40 acre compound and haven't been see since.

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

It's for the avoidance of bears :eek:

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Hmm, I think KL hit a nerve. I know it's your thread, but you could try and resist being such be a drama queen - at least a tiny bit.

Btw, that Rural BC is full of grow-ops isn't really a matter of opinion, it's the reality. It doesn't make rural life here bad or anything. But the fact is that Abbortsford is a pretty unremarkable (apart from the obvious murder capital of Canada thing it has going) fraser valley town in nice surroundings. The same as all the other towns along hwy 1 in fact. The fact that you live on an acreage out of town means that what it's like in the centre of abbotsford won't actually matter to you much anyway.

minimeeze lives in abbortsford, try PM'ing her - she'll be able to tell you about the day to day stuff.

Re: Abbotsford - information
 

As I said earlier on in the post - we lived in Abbotsford for a year in 2008 and are moving back again this summer because we like it.
Obviously there are bits of Abbotsford that aren't very nice but the same can be said for many towns.
We like it because of the many parks where you don't feel threatned by groups on youngsters causing trouble.
No less than 5 ski resorts within a maximum of a 3 hour radius.
3 hours to Whistler and we went there for a few fantastic days.
The views of Mt Baker whilst driving along the road even just to go to the supermarket never fail to take your breath away.
Just a short 10 minute drive and you can be in the States or 45 mins to the ferry to Vancouver Island.
We were there at the height of the Gang shootings which although a bit scary, if you weren't invloved in it all, it didn't affect you.
We met so many lovely Canadians whilst there and our 2 teenage children said that they feel much safer over there than over in the UK.
Days out to fruit farms picking produce, canoe trips, fishing trips for hubby, beautiful walks all on the door step and so I could go on.
We could choose to go back to somewhere else but think Abbotsford has alot to offer.
I bet you'll love it!!:)
Oh yes, and a couple of trips to the Abbotsford Hosptial were impressive