Neilclairep

Hi all,
I am after a little advice I think :-)
My husband has been offered a job in Halifax, it is a promotion with the company he currently works for who are based there.
We are coming to Halifax to have a look around (well more me as I have never been there before, my husband has but only in a work capacity) my husband comes on Wednesday to meet with work to talk. Ore about the role. And I will follow on Thursday - we only have Friday and Saturday as full days and really want to get the most out of our time there to see if it is a move we want to take.

We have a rough idea of what we need to do in that time, but have a couple of areas we just aren't sure of:

Areas - we have 2 young sons (5 year old and a 10 month old) and currently live in a village in Hampshire with a great community feel, we would really like somewhere where there is a sense of community and a family feel this is imperative - any recommendations??
We have emailed a realtor to see if we could speak with the but haven't had a response so if anyone could recommend one that may meet with us next week?

Schools - I think this probably is linked to area but what are the good schools and do they differ to uk schools (I have had a little look at education, and it does appear Canada has a good education system)

If it were just me and my husband, there would be no issue. But with 2 small children (more the 5 year old ) I want to make sure they will be happy.

Does anyone have any experience or advice they can impart?

Thanks in advance

Claire

MillieF

A great big Welcome to BE you have come to the right place...if you decide the move is the thing to do, everyone on here will do their very best to assist. British Expats is a fund of first hand information from people who have experienced the joys, fears, difficulties and realities of the madness that is the adventure of moving to Canada.

We have a few posters on here who have experiences of Halifax, and I am sure they will be along to help shortly. Very best of luck

nikki dreaming

Hi and welcome,

we moved to NS 5 1/2 years ago from Bransgore in Hampshire with kids at that time 6 and 2.

We live 40 mins outside of Halifax in a small rural town, the good news is that you dont need to go that far out of Halifax distance wise to be part of a community.

Will you both have vehicles? I would say this is important if you are looking to live outside the city itself as transport links here are far from great.

Just curious, what line of work is your husband in?

Will this be a permanent move or a contract position on a temporary work permit? Will you be looking to work or are you stay at home mum?

You will have no trouble finding a suitable area I am sure although 2 full days for you to see a place and make a decision is not very long, is there any way you can come back for a longer visit?

I highly recommend that you rent before buying anyway, in order to ensure you are happy with the area and have time to get the feel for the place, while you may like rural at home, rural uk and rural ns is very different and it takes a while to get used to, you may feel you want to actually live somewhere a lot less rural.

Schools overall are good, I have had no complaints, you are correct it is all driven on where you live.

Neilclairep

Thank you millief for your kind words.
And thank you Nikki dreaming for your response it's good to know you moved and are really enjoying it.

We will defiantly have 2 cars so that we can both get about independently :-)

The position my husband has been offered is permanent and is in the engineering sector, as for me and work we have yet to decide, I currently work in the uk so it may be an option but it is something we need to think about.

We aren't really rural in the uk, but it is a small village with a great sense of community rather than remote (just outside Newbury) I should have worded it a little better :-) and I would like to be able to live in a similar environment, where there is a community feel and spirit.

I fly out on Thursday and leave to come home Sunday night - it isn't long and yes we do need to have longer really but we didn't want to leave the children for too long combined with my work (having literally just gone back after maternity and having this week off as it was half term I was pushing it to have any more holiday lol ), this will be trip 1 we hope to come out again if this goes well early next year and this time bring them with us. We just wanted to get a feel for the areas and as we don't have long to concentrate on those areas that perhaps have been recommended on this occasion.

nikki dreaming

Great you can have another visit !
In terms of areas the more expensive there is Bedford and Fall River , from there you could look at cole harbour , tantallon, enfield/lantz, porters lake , all a good drive and not too far out the city, these are just a handful off the top of my head, I would take a look at the map and circle your radius that you want to be from work and go from there, there are certainly a lot more desirable places than not so, I'm sure others will be along
Enjoy the trip !

Neilclairep

Thank you- circling the map is very good advice, and although should have been obvious I hadn't thought of it!!

confused_uk

Have a look at the areas on google street view too, it helps give a feel of the place & might rule out some if you don't like the look of them

MillieF

Neilclairep....if you like it on you first and second visit, what sort of time frame are you and the company looking at for the move?

Neilclairep

My husband would move out for the new financial year (April) I would follow at the end of the school year - end of June.
So not too long, although I know Neil's work will be flexible if it ends up both at the end of June.
So really we do need to start making decisions

Neilclairep

Google street view is a great tool too - thank you :-)

Howefamily

Hi, we live out in Lantz, its a great community and about 40 minutes drive from Halifax. You can get down to Halifax in 30 mins and then it takes about 10 to get over the bridges (unless something has happened)

Welcome and hope you have a good checking it out trip

Howefamily

I would also make a note that the drive down the 102 from Enfield, Lantz, Elsmdale etc is pretty good.
The drive in from Tantallon (as I understand it) can get congested as can the drive in from Porters Lake through the Dartmouth area.
Fall River is stunning and seems to be getting busier traffic wise. Having said all that, the traffic still moves (unless theres been an accident of course)

graham the eggman

I sent along response which this site rejected, Halifax has it's good points and BAD which you will never see on a 2 day trip, we lived there for 15 months 2013.

graham the eggman

I'll try again, food/alcohol/TV/Internet/phone-double and more UK price. Be very careful if you transfer money UK-Canada big bucks DON'T USE YOUR BANK Claire please.
<snip>
if you want to know more
Graham

MillieF

You have me hooked Graham...what do you know, and what will you share?