Originally Posted by Chickensoup

i agree with a lot of the replies!

very true is the fact that the UK is not without its fair share of ugly housing estates in most towns, houses that all look the same etc...

also true is the fact that there are many nice houses in Canada too.

But i feel that if you take most cities in canada, you are more likely to see a higher ratio of "flat pack" houses than houses with character.

I have read elsewhere on this forum the remarks by newcomers who notice the "strange houses" and the reply was something to the effect of "get over it".

Another comment i read that is true is that much of canada is relatively "new" and so you will have less variety of building styles or eras (victorian / Edwardian etc) apart from on the east side of the country which was populated earlier - hence my "except for quebec" comment.

I must reiterate that my posting is based on an impression rather than based on hard statistical fact. It's an impression based on my experience of living in Vancouver and Calgary. We have noticed that, for example, in calgary as it expands, the newer estates are getting increasingly high density and also more boxy, and "samey" without many trees or anything. Not saying I would rather live in a Coronation street house though....! Canadian houses are FAR better value.

Originally Posted by iaink

I find many of the new subdivision areas very bland and samey, but I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I dont think new housing in the UK is significantly better, its just the end result of property developers building on new sites to only a handful of set designs. You just dont have to go so far to get away from it in the UK and find some real old places I guess.

Someone else made the point that this is a fairly modern phenomenon, and that older neighbourhoods with "more character" were more likely built one at a time to the initial plot buyers taste. One thing about canada is it seems far more common here decide to redo your whole house periodically, largely eradicating the old features, so maybe thats part of it too.

My house is 50 or 60 years old and is apparently on its third face lift. Not that it has bags of character, but at least if I come home drunk, I'm not in danger of trying to let myself into someone else's house...

Originally Posted by Chickensoup

Hi everyone,

Forgive me if this topic has been covered elsewhere in the forum, but i could not find it.

I have been itching to talk about one aspect of Canadian life that doesn't seem to get much coverage in the forums from what I see at least.

It is something i feel needs to be covered for people who are about to move here.

That aspect is "housing"; more specifically, "character".

I have travelled quite a bit around the country, from the east to the west side. I have been to all the major cities in Canada.

Apart from Quebec, i just can't help but feel that the average house, although much better value / bigger than in the UK, is actually more likely to be totally without any character or charm.

Not for a second would I swap my canadian house for my UK house, but our new home is totally characterless! And so many others are too. I'm not saying every house is characterless in Canada. Just that an awful lot are.

Driving around Vancouver, a lot of the residential areas are total eyesores blotching the totally eye-popping landscape. What a shame! A lot of houses are simply shacks. (let's not include North-west or West Vancouver in this...!)

Even in Calgary, a lot of houses, although big and full of mod-cons, look like large IKEA sets that you assemble yourself, made out of LEGO or something.

In contrast, we have the architecture of Montreal or Quebec city where you have some real old world charm and BRICK, not plastic weatherboarding or Stucco (= icing sugar pasted onto plywood). Our house has Stucco. Yellow Stucco. Mmmmmm nice.

Put it this way. when we watch any TV filmed in Greenwich Village (Manhattan), we start to yearn the old brick and stone buildings....

Anyway, interesting to see what people think on this highly controversial matter ().

Coming next week: "Why does everyone need to have an 8 litre, 22ft. long truck in Canada?!?!?!?"

Originally Posted by Juliew

I was just in the UK and was shocked by the lack of well maintained houses. In the outskirts of London almost all of the houses look the same - dilapidated with almost identical interior layouts.

Originally Posted by dingbat

My goodness you must have been busy. Not sure I'd spend my time on a visit to the UK getting access to almost all of the dilipadated houses with almost identical interior layouts in the outskirts of London. Its a bit like walking through all the paper and wood housing that is overpriced rubbish in Vancouver. Silly really.

Originally Posted by Lemonfish

I reckon building protection might have something to do with this too.

We live in neighbourhood of 100ish year old homes. Some people love them, others seriously consider pulling them down if they are too small, don't have two or more bathrooms etc. As far as I know, there is nothing to stop them doing this, or changing the character of their home with brutal additions.

Generally I'd say that people don't seem to be as interested in preserving old stuff here - which is strange considering how excited some people get when going to see old stuff in Europe.

If old buildings weren't buldozed, there would be more old stuff for them to see here in 100 years time...