GB1234

Have you any knowledge of the GTA on the outskirts of the five main regions surrounding toronto?
We are thinking of moving there and it seems like the only area where we could afford to buy a house.

Siouxie

Could you be a bit more specific?

"The 5 main regions surrounding Toronto" are what towns/areas exactly?

The GTA is a large area!

Where will you be working? How far do you want to travel (or willing to) to work? What kind of area do you want to live in - rural, suburban or city?

As an example, the area around Hamilton is very reasonably priced, but it would mean an hour commute by car into downtown Toronto.

GB1234

Hi siouxie thanks for your reply.
I will probably be working in different locations throughout the GTA.
We are a family with kids and would like a detached sub- Burban home.
Location approx 1hr. From downtown toronto. Midway between Ajax and Mississagua on a circumference 1hr. From downtown toronto to allow access to east and west of the GTA.
I am A bit apprehensive about buying a home within the toronto environs watershed area.I am aware that elevation is also a factor. Do you know anything about this? Or point me in the right direction?
Thanks for your time,
GB1234.

dbd33

Eh? Ajax is an hour one way, Mississauga is an hour the other way. The logistics of that suggest living on Queen's Quay, perhaps in that Bishop Tutu complex. That's not really a suburb but it does have lots of concrete and tiny lawns.

Queen's Quay is at zero feet of elevation due to being built on a mound of trash that was pushed into the lake to extend the shoreline. However, since this is the first I've heard of elevation being a factor, I wouldn't worry about that.

Souvy

You can't say it's at zero feet. If it was, Lake Ontario wouldn't drain into the St. Laurent.

dbd33

Fair enough, I haven't tried measuring it. Would you quibble if I said seven and five eighths inches?

I commuted from there, well from the Esplanade, to just north of the 401 for a while. That was an hour too.

Oakvillian

So you want to live north of the city, then? Richmond Hill, Vaughan, Newmarket, Aurora? You pays your money, you takes your choice.

I struggle to understand what you're asking, though. If work will take you anywhere in a semicircle around Toronto from Ajax to Mississauga, it becomes not much more than an exercise in sticking a pin in a map. What are you after: access to the lake, public transit, open space, nightlife, decent pubs, high culture? How much money do you want to spend: A few hundred grand, a couple of million?

The Toronto conurbation, as we are constantly reminded in the media, is the fourth largest urban centre in North America. It's a hugely diverse place - in ethnicity and culture, if not in infrastructure and architecture. We need a bit more to go on...

I don't know why you're concerned about elevation. Some homes in Toronto flooded last week after a particularly heavy rainstorm, but that has much more to do with overstretched and antiquated stormwater sewerage than with flood plain characteristics. If it helps, Wikipedia reckons Lake Ontario is about 74m above mean sea level, and most of Toronto and the surrounding area is a little bit higher up than that.

Souvy

Imperial inches or metric inches?

dbd33

Canadian metric, 9.7 inches to the metre.

colchar

The St. Laurent? Do you mean the St. Lawrence?

colchar

Why?

Souvy

Yes

I've been in QC for nine years and some names are just automatic.

<pretentious? moi?>

dbd33

S'alright. It's a bilingual country.

Souvy

"C'est borderline" was one I heard this morning.

This was a garbage guy debating with my neighbour whether or not a particular item was admissible in his truck.

I heard my missus last night use "switcher off". I gagged.

I don't mind if people speak to me in either language but FFS please stick to just one.

ExKiwilass

franglais is the future!