Would you rather live in a park and have a view like this:
http://britishexpats.com/photopost/s....php?photo=510

Or live in a lake community with no view, but be within walking distance of a lake with swimming, boating, trout fishing, windsurfing, scuba diving and open air skating in winter?

There are houses with lake views being built, but they're double the price of my current home

Its a tough call. I'd rather move to Ontario, and have the view and the lake (well river anyway!) But then as you know I've been called a smartarse before!

Seriously though, I live right by a biggish river, and seldom use it for anything (not being a big boater / fisherperson) , so I would go with the view. I enjoy the view every single day.

Not much help really!

Iain

That's our concern - realistically you can only swim in the lake in July & August, skating only lasts from the end of November to the start of March, which only makes it useful for half the year. Would I still head out to Kanaskis to go trout fishing? Would we even use the rest of the lake's facilities?

However ... we have elementary age kids, where will they be hanging out in five or six years time? At the local 7-11? At the community centre in the park? Would we rather they hang out at the fenced off, relatively secure lake? That's really the big question, it's all down to managing the activities of our future teenagers

By the way, the photo was taken during the peak time for foot traffic through the park - school rush hour - I actually saw a kid cycling to school while I took the photo.....

But won't teenagers just hangout with their teenage buddies anyway so it doesnt really matter? I know i always did, and I was lucky to grow up with all kinds of things to do nearby!

Maybe better to go with whatever will help you deal with the stress of having teenage kids best

Iain

Did I mention the lake community has a pub?? Quite rare in SW Calgary...

Should have mentioned that before....Lake community it is then , then you can keep an eye on the kids as they probably wont be far away

There's also 22X between us and the rest of Calgary - no access to the c-train - the little buggers can't go anywhere either until they can drive.

Yes, has to be the lake, if there's a pub. Also, that fence by the woods is a bit ugly.

We're not allowed to have any other sort of fence because we back onto a park - it would spoil the look of the place ....

A niec wrought iron jobby like in an English (and Scottish?) park would be much preferable, I'd have thought. That one looks so, well, functional.

It probably would be, but "building controls" don't allow it.

If you buy a half million dollar mansion on the edge of a lake and you want a fence?? Guess what sort of fence you get ... one exactly like that.

It's very functional and totally insecure - it keeps our 15 year old cat in the garden, but the kids have been able to climb it since the youngest was four.

But it looks like it should be at a bus station. I have noticed that the fences in Brampton on newer houses all look exactly the same as one another (but not like the one in your picture). It feels oddly communist at times.

A lot of Canadian architecture feels like that - suspended ceilings and vertical blinds are the two obvious ones that come to mind - very utilitarian, not very attractive.

I like the idea of a nice Victorian cast iron fence ... I could impale a row of heads on the spikes

We decided not to move this year in the end.

We were going to go for the builder's guaranteed purchase scheme and had a couple of minor quibbles - they wanted to sell our house for 7% less than market value and then move out four months before our new house was ready to move into. Plus there's the GST to pay on a new build - I could use that money to rip out the previous owner's carpets and redecorate from top to bottom.

Not counting the realtor's cut, that's $30K we would never see again, sorry, but no way squire.

Ah well, it would have been a very nice house - we'll wait until spring and buy one that's already up - it's a lot less hassle than building.

I'd go for a Park, cos we will want to walk Fogmyst and Pippin, our two dogs.
and they do not like going in the water

And you will be happy for ramblers to be all over your property? I'll go for the lake meself, am already here