When we moved into our permanent place - without furniture - our neighbours were (and remain) fantastic. We had decided to be proactive and introduce ourselves to them all. It was the best thing we could have done. Within a week our kids were on sleepovers, we'd been lent furniture, kitchen stuff - even a truck to collect and ferry stuff.

If you put yourself out there with a bit of "newbie respect" we found the locals to be just about the friendliest and most helpful people we have ever met.

Us too. We had shipped our furniture in good time as we spent our last 3 months in the UK in a furnished rental. However, the dock workers in Vancouver were in the middle of a long strike so it was over a month before our container was delivered.

A trip to IKEA for some cheap pots, pans and cutlery, Home Depot for a patio table and chairs, and Future Shop for a TV. Our new neighbors lent us beds and other furniture until our stuff eventually arrived.

I would echo the other comments. We survived just recently in an empty house for 4 weeks (yes our shipment arrived 2 wks earlier than anticipated - hooray!) We bought some kitchen stuff at Ikea, TV etc plus a couple of folding beds for the kids to sleep on (to be extra guest beds in future). We squeezed our sleeping bags into our luggage, then had pillows/duvets air freighted so they arrived a few days after us. The kids found 'camping' in our new house so much more fun than a hotel - after a few days in a hotel, they were climbing the walls, and so were we! Good luck!

We used Clark & Rose and it took our container 4 weeks to reach Calgary, a day after we arrived and I'd highly recommend them. We sent our belongings 4 weeks before we left as we borrowed stuff from family and friends. We figured we'd rather slum it with family and friends around than try and deal with an empty house when we got to Canada.

If you want cheap stuff to tide you over until your container arrives, try Kijiji. Lots of cheap and free stuff on there.

Value Village also does second hand smaller furniture and household items.

That's what we did and made it an adventure for the kids. We went to Canadian Tire and done the sleeping bags etc, it was great.

We used Robinsons International - took 2 and 1/2 weeks, would recommend them.



Poppit

Canadian Tire, Value Village, Kitchen Corner, all do cheap n cheerful - or pm me and Kiwi nicely and we may be able to find some wooden spoons, can openers etc!!

We had those plastic patio chairs in N Van during the heatwave of '98.

Stickerama!

We went the patio furniture route too, we were going to need it anyway so bought a nice set which acted as dining table and TV watching chairs until our container arrived. We bought air beds from Walmart to sleep on and I used those storage bags where you vacuum out all the air and managed to get duvets and pillows for 4 of us into one large suitcase. We also bought a cheap picnic set of plastic plates, bowls and mugs with us to use for the first few weeks, but the crockery in Walmart was so cheap we treated ourselves to a proper set ($13). It was kind of fun and really made our trip over here feel like an adventure, and it was like Christmas morning when our stuff finally came.

It WAS Christmas when our stuff arrived! LOL All our worldly possessions got delivered to our house the day before Christmas Eve! It was certainly a Christmas to remember!