Well hi all,

Alvic is back on the boards. We have returned from our reccie to Saskatchewan and I just wanted to share with you all,as promised, how we got on.

Anyone wishing to go to Sask that have any reservations - please dump them out the window. It is a great country. The peeps could not do enough for you, even in the big shops in Regina, the staff were friendly and not at all pushy, out in the country shop owners would have talked all day to us and we got loads of free cups of tea, ice cream and even magazines with a smile and a "Welcome to Canada", thrown in - we were amazed.
The city of Regina when explored is lovely - like any city it has good and bad areas, but on the whole more good ones. The locals will tell you that per capita it has the highest rate of crime in the whole of Canada but yet while walking around Wascana lake or through the carparks of the supermarkets, you will see cars left with the windows down and the keys in them, with owners no where in sight! This would not even be done in our small town in NI never mind somewhere like Belfast. The downtown/core area has the most problems and you are advised not to walk through it alone a t night because if the First Nations population are highly concentrated in this area - avoid the Washington Park area. This is not a racist comment, but a fact of life in Regina.
The driving is actually relaxing because there are so few cars on the roads. My OH will be working in IPSCO in Regina and we have chosen a little town which will be a 45 minute drive away and he has to go through the city(ring road). It is actually exact same distance as he is from work in NI and it takes him an hour 15 mins - so big bonus. We have chosen the town of Rouleau where we bought two plots of land for $2 - I kid you not! It is the town where Corner Gas a Canadian sitcom is filmed. We looked at many houses but decided we would build our own. The realtors were so friendly and honest - pointing out faults in houses that we would not even have noticed.
We also liked the areas of Indian Head, Regina Beach, Katepwa BeachBalgonie, Moose Jaw,Pense, Grand Coulee,Lumsden and White City and Emerald Park - the latter two are quite expensive (well for us anyway)but handy for Regina. The Qu'Appelle valley is a beautiful change from the flatness of the rest of the country although this in itself we found breathtaking with the huge wide open skies and the straight roads stretching for miles.
There is abundant wildlife - we saw two moose (which are only supposed to live in the north) a coyote, chipmunks, the white tailed deer and millions of wee prairie dogs which look like gophers. They also have some amazing coloured birds in abundance.
All in all we were bowled over, a quieter way of life among friendly country people may not be to everyones taste, but we can't wait to go back.
Because we were only there really for four days this is a very small snapshot of a whistle stop tour around the outskitrs of Regina and the rest of the country is supposed to be beautiful too.

AAAHHH, So that's where you went.
I won't show my wife this, we've spent 2 years working out our point of settlement, Ottawa, and we land in 2 months hopefully. This post would put the spanner in the works.

Welcome Steve - you have caught up with me. Ottawa sounds fab too actually. It was the OH's job offer that took us to Sask - so we are really glad it did. For us it ticks all the boxes. The customs guy at Toronto said when told we were immigrating there "Oh it is too quiet, come to Toronto". When we were flying back into Toronto on our way home, all you could see for miles and miles in every direction was millions of cars and traffic jams and we both said "Give us the wide open roads of Saskatchewan anyday"

I am really glad you had a lovely time - I really liked Sask too.

Karla x x x

Hi Alvic,

Glad your trip went well, sounds like you got loads sorted.

We bought a plot (the Canadians say 'lot', but I fell like a show off saying 'a lot' of land!!!!!) when we were over last autumn & hubby who is in the building trade wants to build majority of our home himself (guess who his labourer will be )

If you do a search, there are some good threads about building or self building.

We have a design already & are meeting with various people ie for foundations etc. when we are over at the end of August.

Good luck with it all - i'd love to hear how it all goes

Arris

Thanks Karla - the trip was so worth it to put our minds at rest. We are so depressed being back here.

Thanks Arris - I hope you aren't an unpaid labour - at least ask for the minimum wage
We are thinking of employing Tim -Br Mart, who have a house building business in Rouleau to do the work from start to finish. They leave the house as a turn key property. Because we got the land for $2 we could afford to do this. At the minute we live in an old house which my husband had been doing up for the past three and a half years and I am thoroughly sick of living in a building site. We have a lot of panic work to do now to get it ready to go on the market.
However we will have to sit down with TIM-BR Mart and work out all our specifications and get the correct price - and then we may do a bit ourselves.

Hi Alvic, Great to hear you enjoyed Saskatchewan, were moving to Saskatoon on 26th July. Ive never even set foot in the place.

or foot

Ha ha well i've never eaten there either, thanks for the correction.

Great news to hear that you like Sask AND have bought two lots of land! Boy will you have fun designing your house!

It really was a flying visit - hardly time for the jetlag to hit

When do you hope to move?

Joanne

You won't like it...(moves head from side to side).

Why? please elaborate.

I DON'T KNOW DO I!!!
It's what people say to me when I tell them I'm moving to Ottawa.

No-one else has said that to me