Like a good neighbour...

I had only visited Canada once before we moved up here. We came up for a few days while the hubby interviewed for his job. I immediately loved the city and the surrounding towns and countryside. The hubby asked people where were some good places to live if you have kids and he was told a couple of different towns. We drove around and checked them out but of course we didn't choose where we were going to live because we weren't completely sure we were moving here.

Once we decided that yes, he would take the job and we'd uproot ourselves from the only area that the kids (and ourselves) had ever really known, we had to figure out where we were going to live. C (the hubby) came up for a week at the beginning of June to start working. I had to trust him to pick out a place for us to live since the kids and I weren't coming along.

The company provided him with a real estate agent who took him around to some places. He showed him a house in a nice little neighbourhood. At the time the house was for sale but the owner was willing to rent it for a year in hopes of the renters buying it. C emailed me pictures of the house and gave me his opinion. From the pictures it looked like a nice house - a real house as opposed to the townhouse we were living in at the time. It had a huge backyard, four bedrooms, and a nice size basement for the kids to use as a playroom. It was an actual house unlike the townhouse we lived in in Virginia. So, I told him to go ahead and sign the papers and rent the house. 

To this day, I cannot believe how lucky we were in getting this house. The location is nice - yes, we back up to a busy road but we put in a fence and it makes it a much safer place to play. The house has it's pros and cons - it has lots of windows and gets a lot of natural light but it's a split level so the sound travels easily from floor to floor. I'm thinking some carpets will help with that if we ever get around to buying them.

But the best thing about this house is our neighbours. They are awesome. We have a lot of families around us with kids about the same age as ours which makes our kids happy. They do a lot of yard hopping to visit with each other and we keep an eye on each others kids when they are playing together. 

And the parents of the kids are wonderful too. They are so friendly and welcoming and will help you without thinking twice. An example of this - I was having a problem with our air exchanger (it circulates the air since we don't have central air vents) and my neighbour came over and showed me how to open it up. He managed to get it working again which saved me a service call.

The sense of community on our street made us want to stay here when our lease was up. It is nice to have friends just across the street and know that if there's an emergency they will be there to help out. And it's nice to know that if they need help with something we're there for them. And we're not the only ones to notice it. A new family moved it just before the start of the school year and everyone made them feel welcome. They have a daughter that's the same age as S (and even has the same name) and the two girls are good friends. When they finally sold their old house they decided that they would continue to rent the house they are in rather than start looking for one to buy because they want to stay on our street.

 

Back in Virginia we knew a few of the people on our street but there were so many people we didn't know. And it was just kind of hanging out at the bus stop type of thing.But here we get together with our friends and have skating parties and pizza parties and swim parties. The sense of community here is wonderful. I feel very lucky that we live where we live. Oh Canada! :-)