Hi,Hopefully moving to Stonewall September,Any information on Stonewall,Good or bad will be appreciated.Looking to rent a house for a couple of months then when settled buy.Info on schools and lifestyle pls.Kids aged 14 and 15 thanks.

How did you get a house in Stonewall?

There's a waiting list at the realtor office he phones the list 1st one to say yes gets the house.

Besides that is a brillant small town, with all levels of schools and a all sports programmes and only a short drive to winnipeg. very good bedroom community. Should really enjoy it unless you have some unknown special requirement.

I havnt got a house yet thats why im asking for information ,pls explain good bedroom community.

Winnipeg has 900,000 people living inside it's perimeter,

outside ( 20- 30 minutes from perimeter) are quite a few small towns that total about 200,000. These are know as bedroom communites as most people earn a living from business in Winnipeg.

Why how do you know you are moving there? are you farming joining the RCMP,,,,, ?

I am looking to move there because i have visited twice and like Stonewall very much.I am going truck driving for Paul's hauling in Winnipeg and dont want to live in the city and i think its better for the kids??

That's great you need to contact the ( estate agent ) realtor out there now. Maybe even take out an Ad in the freepress for someone wanting to sell to contact you and avoid the 6% realtor fee.

Which you pay in a higher price for the house.

It's a good choice I would move there in a heart beat if the kids weren't in their sports progams.

Thank you for your reply,very encouraging cheers

Hi

We are 10 months into our new life in Manitoba, we also chose out of town, mainly to achieve our dream of owning land, we live in Eastern Manitoba on 5 acres and a lovely big house. We have the benefits of a rural life plus we live close enough to Lorette, Ste Anne and Steinbach for kids sports activities.

My personal opinion regarding living out of town would be- there is little benefit in living on a small plot in a bedroom community when you can live in the city? The main benefit of living out of town is affordable LAND!

....this weekends family activities are:
Building a chicken coop,
Cutting a trail in our woods- for our own cross country ski and dog sled trail.
Planning an unused part of our house for b&b.
Oh and cutting the grass (there is a lot!)

Life is sweet!

Darren

Hi, It sounds great. We can't decide wether to buy in a small town or a house with land. The only thing that will stop us from buying a house with land would be the winters and the thought of being cut off from other neighbours in really bad weather and being isolated, how have you got round that one?

Did you find it easy to integrate into the community?

How old are your children, ours are 14 and 15 and 5 months what activities are there for them to do, i.e. pictures, swimming pools,basketball/football clubs?
Cheers Cliff

Hi
We thought the same as you, being rural, we expected the worse during our first winter, however, where there are children, there are school bus routes, as a result, the school bus routes are well maintained by the municipality. Also, my location is just off Route 1 (TransCanada) so it is duelled all the way into Winnipeg. Honestly- I experienced a few white knuckle trips into Winnipeg, but I always found the city roads were more hazardous than the rural roads!
Also, people will help you, last year, we drove into a drift and got stuck, (our inexperience) within minutes a friendly guy with a pickup stopped and pulled us out! Never met him since!
I think you do have to be practical and have a pioneering spirit- if it appeals, you will have a fantastic quality of life.
We feel we have integrated well, although it takes time, we have very close friends both Canadian and British and are gradually making more and more friends. The bbq culture and sitting round a fire pit with a beer is so much fun!
Next winter we are considering learning Curling- mainly to make more friends within the nearby town. You have to put the effort in.
My two boys are 11 and 12, they are very happy with there new way of life, you will notice an obsession in Canada with kids registering for all kinds of sports, my boys have not shown a big interest in sports yet, so for this year, we are just letting them find there feet while enjoying the outdoors.
Obviously, there are more facilities in Winnipeg, but there is also lots to do in the small towns, all the things you mention plus skating, cross country skiing etc.
The thing that excites us (when we can afford it) is Snowmobiling in the winter and ATV's, dirt bikes in the summer- this is a huge part of a rural Manitobans life!

Give me your email, I can send you some pics.

Darren

Cliff

We also life in the county, actually only five miles from Darren’s place also on a five acre lot. My husband is a truck driver for a company out of Steinbach, 20 minutes from here and our kid are 14 & 17 (13 & 16 when we arrived here last summer).

Our son is very much into his sports and plays soccer for the local team, this means travelling to all the away games and these can be up to 30 miles away, fortunately due to the roads being clear this only takes 45 minutes, about the same time as a drive into the city or a commute across the city at peak times. Prior to that he played basketball for his school and also had the opportunity to sign up for American football in Steinbach this season.

Take a look at this link http://www.sport.mb.ca/

During the winter we took up snow boarding and went ice skating at The Forks.


Our daughter does miss the convenience of walking to the end of the road and jumping on a bus into town, however when she started school she signed up for the Driver Ed program and can take her driving test in July, given her independence to get around.

http://www.mpi.mb.ca/english/dr_ed/dr_ed/dr_ed.html


Just like Darren said we have had no problems during the winter getting about, the roads are well cleared around here, even before the site roads in town due to the priority of it being a school bus route. Our neighbours have been excellent in helping us out, clearing the drive when out snow blower broke and explaining how things work as well the as different laws between county and town living. (Country living is a lot more relaxed and nobody says anything when our son rides is cross bike around our property or uses it to pop down to his friends house two miles away).

We often sit here in disbelieve in how much our life’s have changed over the last year, and even our daughter as much as she misses the convenience of thinks would not consider moving into the City.

It may be worth taken a look at the different community profiles to see what else is out there http://www.communityprofiles.mb.ca/.

Ang

hi, we move to manitoba in aug (if our house sells) we are looking at stonewall as well, thought of living in winnipeg its self filled me with horror as we live in a village at the moment, don't want to live to far out in the sticks far from shops as the kids want to be able to knock and play with other kids and with paul being out for 12 days at a time driving i thought i might be a bit lonely not seeing anyone fro one day to the next, but expect it horses for courses. good luck though.

Hi Darren,

Thanks for your reply, we will be looking at your area once we have arrived in Winnipeg, as we did not get the chance to when we visited last year. Is it easier to commute from Stonewall or your area? We will we be looking at your area on MLS now. We are thinking of renting to start with so we don't make any hasty decisions and then we can decide at our leisure.

p.s. Ive always fancied snowmobiling how expensive is it?

Hi Ang,

Thanks for your reply, I shall be showing this to my wife as she has got quite a few reservations and she will be glad to see it from a woman's point of view.

Cheers

Cliff

HI berry fcee, we are also looking to move to winnipeg some time this year [ha] we have been to stonewall but my wife didnt like it she said the people looked strange... so it will suit i think.. where abouts in berry do you live i live nearer to bolton then berry wicth is a better team haha, ps hows the spelling is it up to your clever standard.........