jonclark

Hi,

My family and I will be landing in March (woo hoo!), and I have been typically thinking ahead, and was wondering if anybody had some thoughts on good areas to bring up a family.

I am expecting to be working in Saanichton, and so I was looking on the net for places within a reasonable commute (e.g. up to 45mins).

Is there anybody out there who can recommend an area where it would be good to settle with young children?

Any advice gratefully received!

hot wasabi peas

From an Islander's perspective 45 minutes for a commute is insane although I'm sure there are people who do that.

'Downtown' Saanichton is basically an intersection of a few of the more major roads (Mt Newton and East Saanich and Wallace) on the Saanich Peninsula with a few side streets thrown in. The area surrounding that is generally rural/agricultural, yet compact and very nice.... long windy roads with farms or houses tucked into large treed properties. Pretty much anywhere on the Saanich Peninsula is nice...

There are a couple of more densely populated communities:

Brentwood Bay would be good to checkout if you want to live around people and have a few amenities nearby.

A lot of people like Sidney. I don't. Though pretty, it has a not quite real feel about it, to me.

Actually I guess there is Saanichton itself... on a side street, off the main drags.

The only negative that I can think about is the airport... and really that is not a busy airport but still it could bother some I suppose.

jonclark

Great, thanks for your thoughts!

It seems like the house prices are cheaper the further you travel away from the 'Victoria' area, so that may be a deciding factor depending on our available funds.

Thanks.

hot wasabi peas

Yes, generally... although there are a few multi-million dollar mansions along the ocean in Deep Cove and Landsend (North Saanich) like this little shack.

http://tinyurl.com/2hdoet

Wow... the shack has its own website... http://www.villamadrona.ca/

jonclark

Yes, that place looks ideal!

I will patiently wait for a massive housing market crash.

JonboyE

There is no dock - you have to moor your cruiser offshore.

Pity, otherwise it looks quite nice.

Oakvillian

but there is apparently a boat house for "small boats" - so perhaps you could park your dinghy in there for journeys out to the deep-water anchorage?

It's quite awe-inspiring in its hideousness, isn't it? It's like somebody collected ideas of all the most ostentatious gild-the-lily over-the-topness from all around the world and put it together in one little corner of Vancouver Island! What I can't get over is that the main house - all 11,000 sq ft of it, has only 3 bedrooms, but 9 bathrooms. That seems like overkill even for something this monstrous - I mean, how many people can realistically need to brush their teeth at the same time?

hot wasabi peas

Pleb. One must have objects for the staff to clean.

JonboyE

For sure, just because you have money it doesn’t mean you have taste.

The company I work for designs and makes very high-end furniture and interior woodwork. For the last few years we have been involved with a project to build a waterfront estate for a wealthy, but now retired, businessmen.

The owner insisted that he didn’t want to use an architect or an interior designer, despite our strong advice. I guess he was bored and this was to be his hobby. Three years on the budget for the place has gone up from $25m to $65m. It looks like the dog’s dinner – after the dog has already eaten it and decided it didn’t agree with his stomach.

One of our great frustrations is that the owners of the houses we work in will never allow us to take pictures for publicity material. In fact, we usually have to sign confidentially agreements that require us to sacrifice our firstborn unto three generations if we so much as breath their names in public. This time we can, but we don’t want to. We are trying to think of a tactful way of asking him not to mention that we were involved at all.
.

Purley

Yes, it reminds me of Updown Court - I posted a video of the house before Christmas. And its certainly not jealousy - I wish I had the money but if I did I certainly wouldnt buy either. They are both ghastly. I think Updown Court might be worse but its pretty close. I saw it on TV in all its revoltingness which you can't see in the video - blue and yellow and mosaic floors covering a whole enormous room!!! Yuck.

There was a show on TV last night - I forget what it was called. The people had a huge Spanish style house in LA I think it was and the "feature" in the living room was an enormous scuptured tree. It was huge. It was both sides of this enormous fireplace and it extended its branches across the ceiling! The realtor said that she would not accept the listing unless they removed the tree - which they actually agreed to do.

Steve_P

Either that or someone has an incontinence problem.

How about this one up Island just outside Qualicum Beach a little two bedroom two bathroom cottage (800 Sq Ft) for only $13,000,000

Beebop

I expect that the cottage will shortly be flattened and replaced by a selection of large houses!

maddhobs

Just realised where this is situated. If I walk 5 minutes down to our local beach I may be able to see it as this is the inlet view we look out through (Saltspring Island to the left, Swartz Bay to the right). H'mmm wonder if we could use this as an example of local house prices and put a few noughts on the value of our house.

kws

back to the original question, Another vote for Brentwood Bay. Lived there for 18 months and loved the place. has more or less everything you need, including nice waterfront restaurants, great walks nearby and a very safe environment for kids. It's only a 5 min drive to saanichton (Island driving somewhat slower than UK driving). Unfortunately had to move to Calgary for Work but would head back on day....