Help! NS bound.....we think!
Apr 25th 2009, 12:21 pm
#16
Truro NS
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 553
Re: Help! NS bound.....we think!
Hi you lot!
Have got an offer today on our house which for all is very very low we just want to accept and start our new life in canada. My husband, myself and our three young children landed in Toronto last October to activate our PR status - then we returned to the UK to continue selling the house. We spent three months travelling across Canada in 1998 seeing BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec and Ontario and loved every bit of it and have since been back on several occasions to SW Ontario.. However, our heart is telling us to go to Nova Scotia (where we have never been before ever but from reading all of many of your discussions just feel we would love it!) We had planned to land in Halifax last year (for a land-to-activate-visas-come-recce) but Zoom went bust on us so we landed in Toronto instead. If we accept the house offer we could be Canada bound by July - kids could register for new school term in September, we'll have the summer to find our feet etc. We haven't accepted the offer yet (only found out two hours ago so I thought I would turn to you guys!) and don't know if we are just getting cold feet generally about the move or whether it's because we are dead set on going somewhere we have never been to before in our entire lives!!!
We are quite laid back, very family orientated, not generally stressed about much and our kids and us love the outdoors, BBQs, gardening etc. Nova Scotia is screaming to us to come and live there! We're not looking for work until we get there and are not bothered what we do - can turn our hand to most things and as long as we have another money to feed and clothe the kids and spend loads of great weekends camping and swimming and sledging etc we feel we should just do it!
We won't have enough to buy a house outright so would probably look to either rent for a year or so or put say 50% down and mortgage the rest (although this is scarey if work doesn't materialise....) We love the look of Porters Lake (would love to hear from Amydavid...) and Lake Echo and Hammonds Plains and Lawrencetown. I guess we want to be within 30 mins from Halifax, near the beach or lake and close to good elementary schools. and would need a 3 bedroomed place.
So - I am just voicing my thoughts out loud cos I know many of you have been here and know what we are going through.....Our children are all for it (the rest of our family on both sides aren't....they seem to think we are gonna become hillbillys somewhere,live in a tree and regret every single day we live outside Great Britain (which has lost the 'Great...')
Over to you guys - please please help us!!! Have any of you just landed somewhere without a 'recce' trip and how did it go? We know of people from the kids school who emigrated to BC 18months ago without ever having set foot in Canada before and they are loving it loving it loving it. But NS is calling........BIG STYLE - do we listen to our hearts and just go......
Help!
Have got an offer today on our house which for all is very very low we just want to accept and start our new life in canada. My husband, myself and our three young children landed in Toronto last October to activate our PR status - then we returned to the UK to continue selling the house. We spent three months travelling across Canada in 1998 seeing BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec and Ontario and loved every bit of it and have since been back on several occasions to SW Ontario.. However, our heart is telling us to go to Nova Scotia (where we have never been before ever but from reading all of many of your discussions just feel we would love it!) We had planned to land in Halifax last year (for a land-to-activate-visas-come-recce) but Zoom went bust on us so we landed in Toronto instead. If we accept the house offer we could be Canada bound by July - kids could register for new school term in September, we'll have the summer to find our feet etc. We haven't accepted the offer yet (only found out two hours ago so I thought I would turn to you guys!) and don't know if we are just getting cold feet generally about the move or whether it's because we are dead set on going somewhere we have never been to before in our entire lives!!!
We are quite laid back, very family orientated, not generally stressed about much and our kids and us love the outdoors, BBQs, gardening etc. Nova Scotia is screaming to us to come and live there! We're not looking for work until we get there and are not bothered what we do - can turn our hand to most things and as long as we have another money to feed and clothe the kids and spend loads of great weekends camping and swimming and sledging etc we feel we should just do it!
We won't have enough to buy a house outright so would probably look to either rent for a year or so or put say 50% down and mortgage the rest (although this is scarey if work doesn't materialise....) We love the look of Porters Lake (would love to hear from Amydavid...) and Lake Echo and Hammonds Plains and Lawrencetown. I guess we want to be within 30 mins from Halifax, near the beach or lake and close to good elementary schools. and would need a 3 bedroomed place.
So - I am just voicing my thoughts out loud cos I know many of you have been here and know what we are going through.....Our children are all for it (the rest of our family on both sides aren't....they seem to think we are gonna become hillbillys somewhere,live in a tree and regret every single day we live outside Great Britain (which has lost the 'Great...')
Over to you guys - please please help us!!! Have any of you just landed somewhere without a 'recce' trip and how did it go? We know of people from the kids school who emigrated to BC 18months ago without ever having set foot in Canada before and they are loving it loving it loving it. But NS is calling........BIG STYLE - do we listen to our hearts and just go......
Help!
Hi. Thanks for posting. Its posts like this that remind me of how fortunate we are to be here. I would concur with the other posts about the benefits of living here. The highlights are:
(a) not such a brutal climate as some places
(b) trees!
(c) sea!
(d) highest per capita % of universities of any canadian province
(e) highest % of net-connected premises in all of north america
(f) cheap houses
And so on. Im sure youve done your research.
A couple of things you will have to get used to are the relatively low income, relatively high taxes and car prices and relative prevalence of biting flies. I personally dont let these concern me too much. The positives far outweigh the negatives. I only mention them, because bullish as I am about Nova Scotia it would negligent of me to encourage you to bring your family over here without some alternative information.
Me? I love it!
For a logistics expert there are opportunities elsewhere in Nova Scotia. I live in Truro (aka "hubtown" becuase its where the railroads and highways cross). There are rumours about a new intermodal depot here. Up the highway in Antigonish is the head office of Sobey's Superstores. There is also Irvine which has its fingers in all kinds of pies from gasoline to DIY. I am sure they are no strangers to logistics.
Near the airport there is IMP aerospace. Might be an angle there too.
Speaking from experience I would encourage the "advanced party" approach. We lived in B&B and then some really nasty digs for quite a while before we bought our house. This wasnt ideal and may have meant we rushed our house purchase a bit and paid a bit more then we needed to. Dont underestimate the importance of a stable base for the kids to move into. Lots of people advocate renting a house for a year. I strongly concur.
Good luck.
Apr 25th 2009, 1:26 pm
#17
Scottish Canuck
Joined: Aug 2006
Location: Auld Scotia > Nova Scotia > Calgary
Posts: 3,703
Re: Help! NS bound.....we think!
We moved to NS only ever having visited during Mr Y-C-Ds job interview in Dartmouth. The job was in New Glasgow so we spent 3 days up there and emigrated!
We love living here - the extremely friendly people and community spirit here is what we missed back in the UK.
(PS Sobeys headquarters are in Stellarton (New Glasgow), not in Antigonish.) Antigonish is however a very pretty (small) town 30 minute drive towards Cape Breton, and is where St Xavier University can be found.
We love living here - the extremely friendly people and community spirit here is what we missed back in the UK.
(PS Sobeys headquarters are in Stellarton (New Glasgow), not in Antigonish.) Antigonish is however a very pretty (small) town 30 minute drive towards Cape Breton, and is where St Xavier University can be found.
Apr 25th 2009, 5:56 pm
#18
Forum Regular
Joined: Aug 2004
Location: Chester Basin NS
Posts: 178
Re: Help! NS bound.....we think!
Hi, we landed in Dec 07 in Halifax. We had been on one visit to Toronto 3 years before and din't like it much. We knew that we wanted a more rural lifestyle. It was very scary heading into the unknown, especially with 3 kids (youngest was only 5 months) and no job lined up but it turned out to be a good move. We researched as best we could on the internet and rented a house through an online advert. We are in Chester Basin, about 45 mins from Halifax. Let me know if I can answer any questions or if you are going to be near us..We have a fantastic elementary school, my son has only 13 other kids in his class..
Angela
x
Angela
x
Hi you lot!
Have got an offer today on our house which for all is very very low we just want to accept and start our new life in canada. My husband, myself and our three young children landed in Toronto last October to activate our PR status - then we returned to the UK to continue selling the house. We spent three months travelling across Canada in 1998 seeing BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec and Ontario and loved every bit of it and have since been back on several occasions to SW Ontario.. However, our heart is telling us to go to Nova Scotia (where we have never been before ever but from reading all of many of your discussions just feel we would love it!) We had planned to land in Halifax last year (for a land-to-activate-visas-come-recce) but Zoom went bust on us so we landed in Toronto instead. If we accept the house offer we could be Canada bound by July - kids could register for new school term in September, we'll have the summer to find our feet etc. We haven't accepted the offer yet (only found out two hours ago so I thought I would turn to you guys!) and don't know if we are just getting cold feet generally about the move or whether it's because we are dead set on going somewhere we have never been to before in our entire lives!!!
We are quite laid back, very family orientated, not generally stressed about much and our kids and us love the outdoors, BBQs, gardening etc. Nova Scotia is screaming to us to come and live there! We're not looking for work until we get there and are not bothered what we do - can turn our hand to most things and as long as we have another money to feed and clothe the kids and spend loads of great weekends camping and swimming and sledging etc we feel we should just do it!
We won't have enough to buy a house outright so would probably look to either rent for a year or so or put say 50% down and mortgage the rest (although this is scarey if work doesn't materialise....) We love the look of Porters Lake (would love to hear from Amydavid...) and Lake Echo and Hammonds Plains and Lawrencetown. I guess we want to be within 30 mins from Halifax, near the beach or lake and close to good elementary schools. and would need a 3 bedroomed place.
So - I am just voicing my thoughts out loud cos I know many of you have been here and know what we are going through.....Our children are all for it (the rest of our family on both sides aren't....they seem to think we are gonna become hillbillys somewhere,live in a tree and regret every single day we live outside Great Britain (which has lost the 'Great...')
Over to you guys - please please help us!!! Have any of you just landed somewhere without a 'recce' trip and how did it go? We know of people from the kids school who emigrated to BC 18months ago without ever having set foot in Canada before and they are loving it loving it loving it. But NS is calling........BIG STYLE - do we listen to our hearts and just go......
Help!
Have got an offer today on our house which for all is very very low we just want to accept and start our new life in canada. My husband, myself and our three young children landed in Toronto last October to activate our PR status - then we returned to the UK to continue selling the house. We spent three months travelling across Canada in 1998 seeing BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec and Ontario and loved every bit of it and have since been back on several occasions to SW Ontario.. However, our heart is telling us to go to Nova Scotia (where we have never been before ever but from reading all of many of your discussions just feel we would love it!) We had planned to land in Halifax last year (for a land-to-activate-visas-come-recce) but Zoom went bust on us so we landed in Toronto instead. If we accept the house offer we could be Canada bound by July - kids could register for new school term in September, we'll have the summer to find our feet etc. We haven't accepted the offer yet (only found out two hours ago so I thought I would turn to you guys!) and don't know if we are just getting cold feet generally about the move or whether it's because we are dead set on going somewhere we have never been to before in our entire lives!!!
We are quite laid back, very family orientated, not generally stressed about much and our kids and us love the outdoors, BBQs, gardening etc. Nova Scotia is screaming to us to come and live there! We're not looking for work until we get there and are not bothered what we do - can turn our hand to most things and as long as we have another money to feed and clothe the kids and spend loads of great weekends camping and swimming and sledging etc we feel we should just do it!
We won't have enough to buy a house outright so would probably look to either rent for a year or so or put say 50% down and mortgage the rest (although this is scarey if work doesn't materialise....) We love the look of Porters Lake (would love to hear from Amydavid...) and Lake Echo and Hammonds Plains and Lawrencetown. I guess we want to be within 30 mins from Halifax, near the beach or lake and close to good elementary schools. and would need a 3 bedroomed place.
So - I am just voicing my thoughts out loud cos I know many of you have been here and know what we are going through.....Our children are all for it (the rest of our family on both sides aren't....they seem to think we are gonna become hillbillys somewhere,live in a tree and regret every single day we live outside Great Britain (which has lost the 'Great...')
Over to you guys - please please help us!!! Have any of you just landed somewhere without a 'recce' trip and how did it go? We know of people from the kids school who emigrated to BC 18months ago without ever having set foot in Canada before and they are loving it loving it loving it. But NS is calling........BIG STYLE - do we listen to our hearts and just go......
Help!
Apr 25th 2009, 7:00 pm
#19
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2008
Location: Halifax, NS
Posts: 47
Re: Help! NS bound.....we think!
It all sounds so tempting! Thanks for all your help. it sounds like the sort of lifestyle we are looking for - family friendly, quiet, own space, rural(ish) but not too far from the city at the same time. I do not like the sound of the black flies though. No sireeee.
Got some thinking to do!
The next few months are going to be very strange!! You'll no doubt be hearing from us again soon!
Got some thinking to do!
The next few months are going to be very strange!! You'll no doubt be hearing from us again soon!
Apr 25th 2009, 11:08 pm
#20
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Nov 2006
Location: Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia
Posts: 312
Re: Help! NS bound.....we think!
HI,
We arrived Sept '07 and it has been a rollercoaster of ups and downs but after a couple of visits back to Old Blightly, I must say NS is DEFINITELY home and I would not want to live back in the UK.
If you need any help, chat etc.. just drop a line and we are all here to help having been through the ups & downs of this great adventure.
Michelle xx
We arrived Sept '07 and it has been a rollercoaster of ups and downs but after a couple of visits back to Old Blightly, I must say NS is DEFINITELY home and I would not want to live back in the UK.
If you need any help, chat etc.. just drop a line and we are all here to help having been through the ups & downs of this great adventure.
Michelle xx
Apr 26th 2009, 5:03 am
#21
Truro NS
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 553
Re: Help! NS bound.....we think!
We moved to NS only ever having visited during Mr Y-C-Ds job interview in Dartmouth. The job was in New Glasgow so we spent 3 days up there and emigrated!
We love living here - the extremely friendly people and community spirit here is what we missed back in the UK.
(PS Sobeys headquarters are in Stellarton (New Glasgow), not in Antigonish.) Antigonish is however a very pretty (small) town 30 minute drive towards Cape Breton, and is where St Xavier University can be found.
We love living here - the extremely friendly people and community spirit here is what we missed back in the UK.
(PS Sobeys headquarters are in Stellarton (New Glasgow), not in Antigonish.) Antigonish is however a very pretty (small) town 30 minute drive towards Cape Breton, and is where St Xavier University can be found.
