Hi guys,

Been reading all info, loads of useful stuff.

We're HOPEFULLY moving to Calgary if get visa's.........Loads of quesions.

My other half has a job offer working as a mechanic. I currently teach drama at a college to adults with special needs and I work also for the Youth Service. Does anyone know of any people or places where I could get such work in Canada. I've been looking and they don't seem as geared up to education for adults with special needs as we are in the UK....Any views?

Also had conflicting advice on where are nice areas to live in Calgary...Any advice?

Thanks in anticipation.

What are you looking for?

Do you have kids?

Do you want to be close to downtown?

We've no kids. We just want a nice community which isn't like a retirement community!! We want a house which is reasonably priced. Restaurants nearby etc. Not too bothered about being near to Downtown as long as stuff to do nearby. Bit vague I know............It's difficult to know where to start, SW, NE etc.

Don't look ar the NE ... the airport is up that way and its very industrial.

The NW is nicer, but gets the snow before the SW/SE.

Deep SE/SW is family oriented ... no real nightlife to speak of, but there's quite a few pubs & restaurants.

Cinemas are dotted around ... theatre, opera, ballet, etc is all downtown.

If there's only two of you, you probably don't need to look at a 2,000 sq ft single family home, unless you like a lot of space.

There are a lot of nice condo blocks around ... a lot of awful ones too - check out www.mls.ca - if it looks cheap, there's probably a reason why.

What sort of stuff do you like doing?

[QUOTE=Glaswegian]Don't look ar the NE ... the airport is up that way and its very industrial.

The NW is nicer, but gets the snow before the SW/SE.

Deep SE/SW is family oriented ... no real nightlife to speak of, but there's quite a few pubs & restaurants.

Cinemas are dotted around ... theatre, opera, ballet, etc is all downtown.

If there's only two of you, you probably don't need to look at a 2,000 sq ft single family home, unless you like a lot of space.


We visited Calgary recently, and took a look at some houses in NW close to downtown. This area has a mixture of old and new houses. What seems to be happening is that that some old single storey bunglows are been demolished and on the same land lot, two double storey semi-detached houses are being built, with a 2 car garage at the rear of the house.

These wooden houses were very lovely. One thing to remember, is that a 2 storey 2000 sq ft house in Calgary means that you have 1000 sq ft upstairs, 1000 sq ft downstairs and approx another 1000 sq ft in the basement. So really you have about 3000 sq ft of living space. Most basements come unfinished with a concrete floor; however the newer houses had larger basement windows, which means additional rooms can be constructed there.

The one thing which we did not like in these newer homes is the layout of the ground floor. With these new houses, when you walk in through the front door, you enter direct into the kitchen. The living room and dining room are on either side of this kitchen. In other designs it was kitchen first, then the dining room and the living room ( with the fake fireplace ) right at the back of the house. I am not sure why Canadians prefer this layout, and am curious to find out.

We prefer the standard design of living room first, then the dining room and kitchen at the back ( and out of view of any guests in the living room ! ).

Apart from the usual advise of not buying a house too near a main road, we were advised to buy homes which had "stucko" ( not sure if I got the spelling right ) or fake brick or stone outer walls as they do not need painting every few years. Other thing is not to buy a corner house near a junction as there will more sidewalk to shovel in winter ( however our real estate agent tells us that in Calgary you need to clear the sidewalks only about 13 times per year ).

If you head to the larger developments, you'll find that each has multiple builders .... designs vary a lot between builders.

Stucco ... basically three coats of trowel finished render applied directly on top of the insulation ... it costs more to do and means that any work that needs done on the outer frame of your house will require the stucco to be redone. Most modern houses aren't finished with wood anymore ... vinyl siding is the standard.

Buying a corner house doesn't guarantee you will have more sidewalk ... the house at the corner of our street on one side has no sidewalk at all ... corner plots also tend to be a lot bigger.