mark&kay

Hi Folks,

Have been thinking of moving to Alberta with my partner when my time is up in the Royal Air Force (still a couple of years to prepare); Calgary seems the best choice for my partner as she would be able to transfer her job to a sister company based there. This is where we become stuck, looking at places to rent or buy we are bamboozled with whats nice and whats not so nice.
Any suggestions of places to settle would be of great help.
Also any information at all about how we actually start this big leap would also be much appreciated.
Regards
Mark & Kay

Almost Canadian

That's a hard one to answer on the information you've provided.

Do you want to live in suburbs or more rural ?

Are you concerned about travelling to and from downtown ?

Would you like to live in a "lake community" ?

Lots of variables - a bit like asking where it is nice to live in the South East of England

Butch Cassidy

I agree with Daz
The best thing is take the OH and any small people you have on a research trip and check the three quadrants (most people advise against the NE) yourselves then narrow it down from there (assuming you want to live in the city limits of course).
HTH
Butch

mark&kay

Suppose so Duh
We are living in Norfolk at the moment and are sure we want to live at least on the outskirts of town of maybe even more rural. Would like a good sized garden or land 1/2 acre + I don't mind travelling but am not sure what travelling in winter is like in the Calgary area. Ive only seen Edmonton and Labrador, and they can be pretty tricky.
So in truth we want the best of both worlds, not too far away but somewhere out of the way, if that makes any sense.

Butch Cassidy

You'd be looking outside town then. Places like Cochrane, Langdon, okotoks MAY have gardens upto 1/2 acre+, but you can certainly get acreages on the outskirts of town anyway.

Alberta_Rose

If you have plenty of money and would like to live with a bit of land, then Springbank/Bearspaw might be the place for you.

It's to just to the west of Calgary and we drive past it on our way to the mountains. The houses look gorgeous, and Springbank high is a good school.

Prices are 750k upwards though.

eg http://www.cyndicollins.com/

Butch Cassidy

Yeah but come on its money well spent isnt it!!!!!

Alberta_Rose

Oh I didn't say it wasn't .... I'd be seriously thinking of there if I had the cash .... although some of the properties look a but exposed. The breeze from the west can be a little fresh

Butch Cassidy

Yeah If I had the cash I'd be on the otherside of 12 mile coulee for definite!!!

Hows the work on the basement coming????

Alberta_Rose

There are some much cheaper acreages to the north and east of Airdrie ..... Beiseker, Acme etc (my kids think it'd be cool to live in Acme, just cos of the name!)

Again its a bit exposed there, and rather flat. Possibly a bit too far away from anything. .... but you get your own well and cess-pit.

If you're within shouting distance of the Deerfoot trail you can probably get in and out of Calgary OK if you need to, as the road is cleared quite quickly.

We havn't had much snow at all this year, so haven't really seen how bad it can get I suppose. The locals keep telling us this is not a typical winter!!!

Alberta_Rose

Ahem .... it hasn't actually started yet. We hope to hear from Mark today when he can start. Meanwhile we are meeting the flooring company man (Alan) today, so looking forward to that ..... we also picked up SHEETS of colour charts from RONA's yesterday to choose colour-scheme/paint. We went to have a look at Andy&Kathy's basement that Mark did for them, and it all looks very good. Andy's only criticism of Mark was that he was a perfectionist (and paid by the hour!), and that he would take longer than he personally would have to get something just right!

All quite exciting though.

I start my job next Tuesday (I think!!), if I can get them into gear .... took another phone call this week to nudge them along!

Butch Cassidy

Yeah I think its a Fallacy that Canada's first European settlers where French and British. I actually think they were Mediterranean in disguise everything is so laid back with a Manyana(sp) attitude.

frankieforehead

there is no better place to settle than Cochrane.....Isn't that right Judy ?

Piccy taken during the Summer....The winter makes everything yucky and brown.

oceanMDX

Very nice pic.

Steve_P

Isn't that GlenEagles, Cochrane's mobile home community?

Have they stabilized the slope yet, to stop the homes from sliding into the Bow valley?