Hello.

Now, being British I am - naturally - a hardy, robust and durable individual capable of tolerating the most inhospitable environments in the furthest flung and least civilised outposts of Her Majesty's Empire. Why, it's nothing to me if my digs have seen better days or my general surroundings resonate with a low, steady hum of despair - I have shopped in Ashton-under-Lyne town centre, and lived to tell the tale, or at least recount it, falteringly, between sips of water and soothing words from a psychiatrist.

The problem is I married a Scandinavian. You'd think with the viking heritage they should be made of strong stuff but the truth is they're all a bunch of sandle-wearing beard stroking socialists who like interior design and baking. My wife, she's used to pretty little Scandic towns with painted houses, cobbled squares, 17th century churches and cafe culture. A lot of them live in what are essentially council flats or council houses, but because it's Scandinavia everything is beautifully tended and kept up, and the interiors tend to be lovingly maintained and regularly renovated.

So I've been trying to sell her on the idea of moving to Canada - and it was a breeze when it came to the jobs market, the economy, the "opportunities for the kids" (when we have them). It was all going swimmingly, but then I had to go and show her some potential properties online, didn't I? BIG MISTAKE. "That kitchen is hideous", "Ew, it's like a concrete block", "Why does it look so depressing?", "Who decorates these places, it looks like an American film where people are poor", "It looks like a collection of concrete blocks". For a while I tried to counter with vaguely positive platitudes like "nice and spacious, though" and "useful number of cupboards" but eventually I had to give up that pretense. She comes from a culture where the word for "cosy" is used in almost every sentence and there's no doubt that there was a major cosiness deficit in what we were looking at...

Anyway, this was Kijiji for rental properties in Winnipeg and the Fraser Valley, since Manitoba and BC are the two provinces I've most seriously considered. Question is: am I missing something? Is there somewhere else I should be looking, website wise, for property with slightly more character and er...freshness? Perhaps if you use an agent of some kind you can get access to a classier tier of properties?

I know some people are prone to quip - or perhaps even sneer - that "you can't eat the scenery", and I have no qualms with my human brothers who choose to pursue a relentlessly pragmatic course through our vale of tears. But some of us, confounded and decadent Quixotes that we are, do insist on hitching a degree of our psychic well-being to the aesthetic quality of our surroundings - my wife is just such a type, so I need to either produce pretty Canadian property pictures soon, or shelve my current scheme in favour of a more coercive and devious strategy (think: how they used to get Mr. T to fly on the A.Team.)

I'm like your wife.

There are really nice neighbourhoods but notsomuch in the Fraser Valley because it was developed more recently. Parts of Ladner village and Tswawwssen (look up beach grove) are cute. Um. White rock, Ocean park? East Van around commercial has lovely old homes. North Burnaby between Willingdon and Boundary. Kits, Dunbar etc but now you're getting really $$$$.

But, yeah, slim pickings. sorry. She's not wrong, a lot of the burbs are ugly utilitarian soul destroying places to look at.

You could also try South Surrey, but I'm afraid it tends to be a bit cookie cutter and bland there too.

By and large, canadians care more about parking spaces and size than they do aesthetics. they like to play it safe, hence the blandness of 99% of most architecture. Also, doing faux-old style homes is big here.

Yep, it's Canada. Stunning scenery but the majority of towns/cities are pretty ugly.

If she wants scenic architecture, try Bruges.

I empathise and agree with your wife. Unless you can afford a very nice place in southern coastal BC, it is a depressing and soulless place, imo.

and another thing - by and large, beautiful neighbourhoods are for rich people in North America. The idea that poor or ordinary people might need or want beautiful surroundings is not on your average North American's radar. They get to choose the type of laminate on their floor and the tile in their bathroom, but there's bugger all choice in what goes on the outside unless it's a custom build. hence, beauty is for the rich.

They have Ikea here...A nice Lack coffee table and maybe an Ektorp sofa and I'm sure she'll feel right at home.

Really? Expensive here seems to be in the style of gaudy excess that would embarrass most premier football players.

i'm thinking of the character hoods like Dunbar etc. Very expensive.

You can buy somewhere that looks like a council property if you really must. Then you can renovate and decorate to her heart's content.

Buy one and renovate, sell her on the idea that she can introduce some euroflair design and show those taste deprived seal clubbers what home style really is.

It's a shame you don't want to move to Nova Scotia....plenty of gorgeous properties there! Some pretty houses here in Ontario too.....

Sorry, that wasn't very helpful

Ironically, some of those seal clubbers have some pretty nice old houses:







Although granted, much new construction is fugly standard bungalows, faux victorian piles etc etc.

The first picture I agree with, but not so keen on the other houses. Maybe it's because I'm not 7 years old and don't want to live in a house that looks like a box just painted in a bright colour though.

If i could speak the lingo i would swap Calgary for a Scandinavian town with cafe culture in a heart beat..im sure the clientele are better looking too.

Thanks for the responses, appreciate y'all taking the time.

ExKiwilass, christmasoompa, Oink - thanks for the affirmatives, it's nice to know that she/we are not the only ones with this kind of perspective. I was a little wary of provoking a deluge of abuse because I know people can be very defensive of places they've moved to and I also know that people's houses and their aesthetic taste can be very sensitive subjects - I'd rather criticise someone's child than say I didn't like their kitchen.

If you put a high priority on how things look it can get interpreted as snobbishness but that's not what it's about - on the contrary, she comes from one of the most ideologically egalitarian cultures in the world where income disparity is very low (sucks if you're a doctor, great if you're a supermarket cashier) and they just have a philosophy that everyone deserves a nice, mysig (cosy) home and environment for their children, whatever their profession.

What you said here, ExKiwilass:

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...is pretty much a word perfect summary of the conclusion I'd started to reach from my research. It seems that in North America, more than most of Europe, a nice home in attractive surroundings is considered more of a luxury for those who can afford it - something to aim for at the end of the game when you've taken part in the American/Canadian "Dream" and come up trumps. And in the meantime, when you're "on the way up", you make do with something that has the right bedroom count and commuting links. Seems that in Europe it's somewhat easier for those on middle incomes to live in beautiful surrounds.

Jättebra! Och sen kan vi prova några köttbullar i restaurangen, kanske - smak av hemma!

I'm sure I could buy something that resembles a UK council property, but she might put cyanide in my cinnamon buns.

Okay, but I'm going to leave out the seal clubbing reference because I don't think we're ready for that discussion yet.

Hey no, sure it was helpful! I appreciate you bringing it to my attention. I actually hadn't considered Nova Scotia so much because:

1. A former colleague of mine who'd lived there told me they refer to people with foreign backgrounds as a "Come From Away" - when he said it I actually misheard that first "C" word and initially thought the epithet was much more derogatory than it actually is, but even after he clarified I still thought it might suggest the place is hard to get integrated in.

2. I had the impression it was one of the provinces with relatively few economic/job prospects.

Maybe this was unfair of me, and on your prompting I might take a closer look at NS. The missus is actually a very big fan of the Anne of Green Gables books from childhood, so perhaps I can "leverage that" as an American might say.

Atlantic Xpat - nice pics, thank you. What are the locations there? The third one looks a little ominous in a potential-landslide sort of way, but otherwise, yeah..