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

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...)

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.

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!
(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.

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

The countryside out there is very nice though.

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?

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.

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.
Serves him right as I have been busting my buns packing the whole thing on my own

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

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 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)

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

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
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.

Yep? Well we are neither, so maybe we'll just stand on the sidelines and referee.
I have a whistle!
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.

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

And cheap Petrol

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.