helcat12

Today is the day my husband flew out of Manchester to start work in B.C.
He has been successful in his job, he has found us a lovely house to rent in the Abbotsford area and all our things have been shipped safely.
He has made friends, his colleagues are nice and he is earning good money.

His LMO came up for renewal along with his TWP and that went very smoothly and he got a 2 year renewal.

He is very happy and is certain now that Canada is the place for us cannot wait for me to join him.
So far things have gone very well in these ways.


On the other hand,
I stayed here in the UK, so today is the anniversary of our parting.
Our cat 2 FSW progress is slow - we applied 7/9/2010 and have only just got a request for new police checks and Background info forms, which we already filled in at the start.
Our house has been on the market for 2 months without a single viewing, which is very depressing as it is all that is stopping me from going over right now.
In a year we have been able to send only 7 weeks together in total.
We were apart for our 16th Wedding Anniversary and it looks like we will also be apart for our 17th.

So, a game of two halves - a great year in many respects with lots of achievements (although small to others, very significant to us) and excitement and new things to meet and enjoy but also a great deal of sadness, helplessness, frustration, loneliness and a lot of tears.

Today I am working hard round the house and garden in the hope that the new estate agent will be able to get some viewings for us and that our wait will be over very soon. Keeping busy....

JonboyE

Any house, in any market, will sell if it is priced correctly.

How many pounds is

worth?

I am not as unsympathetic as this sounds, but in your situation I would be doing everything I possibly could to join my OH. Two months without a single viewing means that something is wrong.

kirstybowles

Don't loose heart we have had our house on the market since February, for 16 weeks we had not one viewing! we redecorated every inch spent time and money on it and nothing.
Then we decided to change estate agent and we had 4 viewings within 2 weeks! the old ones were crap to put it politely!!
It must be really hard being apart but it will be worth it in the end x

good luck xx

el_richo

A year apart? **** that, i'd be renting the house out for a bit. You can't get your time back but you can always make more money.

Good luck with it all.

Edit: I'm out that way on Weds

helcat12

You are absolutely right - the estate agent I went with initially was a big chain and I thought they would give my house better exposure, it being the sort of place that wouldn't suit a family but more professional couple of older people looking to relocate to a village or downsize.
They over-priced it but it is very difficult to judge prices for me in a village where there are only very few of the similar house type and small numbers mean they don't come on the market often, so there wasn't anything like mine recently to compare to.

I am doing absolutely everything


Yes, my initial EA were so incompetent that I just this week managed to get them to cancel my contract without fee (which is very hard to do) after 7 weeks of the 13 week contract period.
I also have done lots of decorating, new carpet etc but if no=one comes to see it that is all wasted, isn't it?
The new agent has just taken the photos and priced it more modestly and he thinks more sensibly and I am hopeful that there will be some interest now.
TBH, we always said we didn't want top dollar for the house - we have excellent equity in it and it is costing me £1000 a month in mortgage and bills to stay here, so a lower price never was an issue for us and I made that clear to the initial agent.

"Out that way" my Abbotsford home or "out that way" my Derbyshire home?
Abbotsford, I assume.
What are you going out Abbotsford way for?
Haven't you heard about the drive-by shootings?
I would wear the bullet-proof vest if I were you and take the Sherman not the convertible.

If you do brave the 'hood, then the blueberries and raspberries are great at the moment. Neil has a freezer full now.

Thanks for the wishes, all.

RKS_in_Calgary

Happy Canniversay Helcat - sad to read of your last year but great that your OH has settled in well (we also had our TWP renewed without issue for 2 years so at least that is a bit of a relief). As you know our TWP / FSWCat2 are almost mirrored (we had our Canniversary last week and moved here from Warrington!) except that we are all in Canada as we didn't have a house to sell. Am sending lots of good vibes to you - hopefully this will be a great week

ninaDGBCA

Hope your house sells soon. Maybe do think about renting it out. Most of my UK friends here rent theirs out back in England as they couldn't sell. Or maybe it's even worth taking a bit a loss but be with your hubby sooner. Really wish you all the best and a quick reunion

JonboyE

For some Vancouverites anything "across the Port Mann Bridge" is considered in the wilds and barely touched by civilization. A place only the brave or foolhardy will venture, and only after making sure their affairs are in order.

As one of my wife's Kerrisdale clients said, in a rather shocked voice, "Surrey? No, I couldn't possibly drive there."

el_richo

Out Abbotsford way but not as far as the actual place. I have standards you know

Our freezer is laden with the berries too from my FIL's garden. The ones the bears haven't pilfered anyway.

helcat12

I have considered renting it out but I just want to try to close all business here in the UK if I can.
Oh, yes, I am prepared to take a low price to be with him, no doubt about that and any offer will be considered.

Thanks so much for your supportive comments, girls. I do appreciate it.
I hope others reading this do not follow the path we have done because I could not honestly recommend it, even though it seemed eminently sensible at the time.

You may have standards, but you don't have your own berries, not even your own bears!!!. You might as well be living in Fulham!

The Port Mann Bridge is about to become a toll bridge, isn't it (or at least, the replacement bridge)?
Now I know what prompted that - we 'Clampetts' won't be able to afford to even visit civilisation at this rate, driving through Wisteria Lane with our tongues hanging out, drooling past our chewing tobacco.

How will we know what we are missing?

el_richo

No berries or Bears downtown but there was an otter playing around outside earlier this morning until it nearly had it's face taken off by an aquabus.

The Port Mann is deffo going to be toll so hopefully it'll keep some of the riff raff out plus if it's anything like the Golden Ears bridge, it'll be a pleasure to drive across the empty bridge in rush hour. I think it's supposed to be ready next year at some stage. Right now it's a pain in the arse.

helcat12

Well, it should've been paying more attention!
I've been told by folk in the know that they attack sea birds for sexual purposes
And they apparently drown them afterwards.

Their cute, cuddly exterior is just a front for intra-species perversion.
Don't be fooled!

Yep, the Port Mann roadwork was causing all kinds of traffic chaos as we drove up to sign for the container at the Border Control offices in the city a few weeks ago.

It won't keep us out, though - we'll just get on the Skytrain

el_richo

Skytrain? From Abbotsford? It's about 45 minute drive away to the nearest station isn't it

Anyway, rent your house out and be done with it. Like i said before, you don't get your time back

helcat12

Well, we can ride the haycart as far as King George!

I hear you about the house.

el_richo

Which is about 50km away from Abbotsford though isnt it

Hopefully it's an economic donkey