Projects The bucket of ugly! A de-uglifying thread...

I don't brag too much about Alberta winters , sometimes I hate them. The cold and snow and all that goes with it gets old each year. On the plus side we do have a huge amount of blue sky and sunshine all year.
As far as real estate goes we have been watching the Vancouver Island real estate market closely for several year, plus my father lives out there north of Qualicum Beach.
We plan to move to the Island when retirement comes and have found real estate comparable to what we have here in Alberta.
It all depends what you want or need.
By the way there is something else we can brag about that BC doesn't have, and that's stable good paying jobs in the oil industry.
I'm looking forward to the Island life and the ocean, all year round

 

Cheap??!! While coastal BC is expensive, cheap is a relative term - I'd love the real estate prices found in most of the 48 states compared to here - my property in Newport Beach, while again relatively expensive, has considerably more value than what I own here. When I can manage to legally be down there full time, I'm kissing this frozen wasteland goodbye for good.

And as far as winter goes, I would say "complaining" rather than bragging - I'd kill for 75 degrees year round...

Steve

 

And one other thing I forgot to mention (Larry, Oh boy, are you gonna find out about this!) is the low taxation rate in AB, which ties into the oil. The friggen taxes here are obscene! The island is really beautiful, and a lot less crowded than the Fraser Valley. Weather is generally a little better too.
When the guy I bought my '39 from was here, I mentioned what I paid for my house (1960s 2000 sq. ft. bi-level on an 8000 sq lot) he just about shit a brick. He paid half that for 10 acres in upstate NY!

 

I know about the taxes, having visited for an extended time every summer for many years, plus with my dad living on the island
That is true of the crowdedness of the lower mainland, the Island is much nicer that way. Especially aways up island away from the madness of Victoria.
The property taxes are decent with the deductions given as well as the senior discount.
I'll pay the price I know, but really want to live out my days out there after I finish my working days

 

Haha, agreed. If I ever figure out a way to kiss scraping windows for 8 months goodbye, I am GONE!

 

I won't say what I paid for my place on 17 acres here last December....let's just say we are still a little behind in property costs up here in rural northern alberta but catching up quickly these days.


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Yea, you know what BC stands for, right? Bring Cash . Man I love up island, it is beautiful! I understand 100% why you would want to retire there! Which side are you planning on, East or West?

 

Planning on the east side, up around Nanaimo or possibly Parksville up as far as Courtenay. That would be as far up as I would want to go.
We love the Qualicum Beach area and all of what they call Oceanside for that matter.
My dad lives in Bowser just up from Qualicum.
We are thinking that there is less tsunami danger on the east side
It's also a lot wetter on the west side.
I love Tofino and Long beach, just prefer to visit.
Larry.

 

We're turning Chips thread into a BC Travel-log, so I'll shut up after this. Courtenay is REALLY nice. I spent a week in Long Beach (anyone visiting BC, GO THERE) once back in the nineties, was staying in this hotel that literally backs onto the ocean. So I am up early, gazing out the window at the STUNNING view of the bay, and off to my right, I see two bald eagles flying along in formation, parallel to me and right at the same height as my window, and about 100' away. My camera was laying on the bed with a 400 mm lens already on there, so I grab it, focus, pan and start cranking frames and banging shots as fast as I can. After about the 4th frame, I realize the pull feels a little light. NO FILM in the camera!! Once in a lifetime...

Just realized, the eagle story was Ucuelet, not Long Beach. Chalking it up to premature senility...

 

A BC travel-log ,I like it.
Yes we have taken the thread slightly off on a tangent, but Vancouver Island truly is a little slice of paradise.
And this isn't the first time this thread has gone off the rails

 

...And just like that, Blue One puts us at 4000 posts on this thread! Thanks guys, this one has been fun, and I do promise I'll get back to meaningful progress again soon.

 

You know Chip, we have talked a few times about me coming down there and you showing me around, maybe someday I could return the favour. I'd be willing to bet an insiders (and avid flyfishermans) tour of some of the spots around here would blow you and Miss Judy away. be a lot different and a lot quieter than your area, but you would sure see some stuff. If you came in September sometime, we could catch a cruise night at the White Rock McDonalds, check out Crescent beach, do my old stomping grounds on the North side of the valley, and close it with the Ocean Park show. The lakes, forests and rivers where I grew up will blow you away. If you stand in the backyard of the house where I grew up, and look north, all you can see is forest and mountains, and if you started walking through the bush it would be literally 230 miles before you hit a paved road. Thats only 1/2 an hour from where I live now. Growing up there was an incredible experience. Our old driveway was about 200 yards down through dense forest. When I was a teenager, sometimes I would come home late at night after a night of boozing and start down the driveway, and there would be a black bear standing there looking up the driveway at you. You would start walking down, and the bear would go about 20 yards into the bush. You'd walk down, and the bear would go up, crashing through the bush in the opposite direction. When you got down to the bottom, you would turn around and look back, and the bear would be standing at the top of the driveway, watching you, backlight by the moon. They just liked to know what you were doing, and where you were going...

 

Happy to help and we will be here waiting.
You know George that if Chip and Judy came up and hung out with you in the lower mainland and got a taste of the temperate climate you might have some long term guests

 

Only if he brings the louver press.. thats why I suggested September. If he DID decide to stick around, I'd wager by October 15th, he'd be outta her like a shot, just like my in-laws were...

 

Thanks George! One of these days it might just happen... If I can ever get caught up enough to think about vacation time...

 

I'd be glad to have you guys.

 

If we get Chip and Judy north of the boarder we will have to plan a HAMB cruise/get together, I'd be in!


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The forecast for Houston, on Saturday, is a morning low of 59 and an afternoon high of 78. I'm going to wear the treads off my tires. And it will be ALLLLLLLLLL RIGHT.

 

You could hit the infamous Ocean Park annual HAMB meet 'n greet ! Fuzzy comes about the same distance as you every year!

 

When is it? I grew up in Salmon Arm so it's not hard to twist my arm to head west for a holiday!


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Ocean Park Ford, about a block from the intersection of 152 and King George Hwy in South Surrey second Saturday of September. If you showed up for the Meet n' Greet, we could equal this years record attendance, which would be, ummm let me see... well, there was Kant Spell, and uhhh, well yea, we would equal it anyway...

 

Well I'll start planing for next year and maybe I can find some one else to come so we can....uh....double the attendance over this year!


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Well, lets not get all carried away and set the bar too high...

 

What the heck is up with this boarder thing ? A boarder is someone you rent a room to, a border is the geographical line between countries.
Hey George, maybe if Chip and Judy came north of the border with the press then maybe you would end up with boarder(s)

 

Damnit!!!! Caught me on that one! Too much whiskey when posting!


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FUNNY! I was actually just watching a documentary about coffee last night, and they had a sort of re-enactment of the Boston tea party, when I read this it cracked me up!. "prepare to repel boarders! Ar be dar! Thems that dies will be the lucky ones! Arrrr!"

 

I could likely talk the President into a trip west next fall, would that quintuple the turnout?

 

That would be damn fine time to escape the heat down here too! Usually by that time I'm about 110% buggy from the last hundred days of 105+.

 

That heat can make anyone buggy I think. My wife Jan is from Texas and we were down there near Dallas for July and August one summer.
I thought I was going to pass out or melt.
Waking up to 80 F at 7:00 AM and watching it rise from there to well over 100F was no fun.
Getting out of an air-conditioned anything was like getting hit by a wall of hot.
I climbed out of my truck one day after parking in a freshly blacktopped parking lot...
I thought my sandals were going to melt and that I would have no tires left when I came back
My next thought was perishing as I crawled across that hot blacktop searching for a big Dr.Pepper full of ice

 

Funny, when my wife and I go to Vietnam in the summer, she's the one who complains about the heat, and she grew up there! When I was in Shanghai, it was between 110 and 113 in the daytime, I didnt mind it.I guess for me its probably the novelty, if it was like that every day for months at a time, it would start to drive me buggy, but when its for a month and I come back here, its kinda fun.