Topic: Big move ahead

[Ace_O_Spades]

So I had a job interview up in the interior of British Columbia for a new career I'm hoping to start. If it comes through I'll finally be leaving Vancouver after 11 years, which is going to be weird. Moving my family means my wife leaves her job and will have to start her practice over and build a new client base, which sucks. Also, even though it is ridiculously expensive, Vancouver is just an awesome place to live. I'll be really sad to leave.

It's one the horizon any way though, whether I get the new job or not. Either I get it, or we still move away somewhere else next year and my wife will work full time and I'll be a stay at home dad. She makes $100 / hour as an RMT, so she can easily support us only working four days a week. We want to afford to buy a house, and as GPW will be able to attest, the housing market in Vancouver is absolutely insane. My sister just bought a house in Lynn Valley in North Vancouver and spent 800k on it. Insane.

Anyway, I'm just a bit anxious about the big life change that is coming. Live is comfortable right now, but we want to shake things up and take it to the next level. It would be nice to have a yard for my dog to run around in a bit before she passes away.

[Quemaqua]

Good luck, mate. Sounds like things are pretty good either way. I doubt a move will make you too uncomfortable. A new space can be a really good thing.

[scottws]

Good luck!  I'm still happy with my move, though I miss my family and friends.  I've made some friends here, but nothing replaces bonds with people formed 20 years ago.

Cost of living disparities are quite interesting to me.  As many know, I lived my whole live in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA until the last four years where I now live near Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA.  Cincinnati has an extremely low cost of living, so I found moving to the Ft. Lauderdale area a bit of a shock.  Sure, my job pays a lot more than a similar job I had in Cincinnati, but my homeowners and car insurance is like 4x more expensive, my house was more than twice as much (bigger house, but much less land), etc.

Going through that transition showed me how hard it really can be to move to a low cost-of-living area to a high one, because you may not have the wealth you need to get into a house.  It also showed me a little about income disparity.  While things like homes and groceries are more expensive hear, cars aren't.  So you see everyone here driving Mercedes while back in Cincy everyone had Fords and GMs.  But I also see how relatively easy it would be to sell my house here and get a really nice house (and yard) in a low cost of living city.

Sorry for the aside.  It's just been something on my mind lately.

[gpw11]

My sister just bought a house in Lynn Valley in North Vancouver and spent 800k on it. Insane.

HOW THE FUCK DID SHE BUY A HOUSE IN LYNN VALLEY FOR ONLY 800K??  But that aside, did she get a free Kappa tracksuit with that house?  Sorry, West Van pride showing through.

Good luck man, where are you looking at moving?

[Cools!]

Haha. Toronto isn't too far away from Vancouver in house prices then.

Best of luck Ace!

[Pugnate]

A few months from now you'll be feeling a lot better as you are settled in. Good luck and congrats on the move. It sucks majorly to lose old friends, but taking things to the next level is a good idea as well if that's what you want.

[Ace_O_Spades]

Sorry, West Van pride showing through.

Good luck man, where are you looking at moving?

Must be nice being born into the wealthiest city in the province, huh? I kid, I kid

800k is about the range for a 3 bedroom house in Lynn Valley right now. Not that unusual.

The job is in Prince George, but that would only be for two years while I get experience, then I'd probably transfer back to Kamloops for my kid to go to a decent school there. Plus we can afford a house there and it doesn't suck horribly.

[gpw11]

Crazy, I would have thought you'd be looking closer to a million for a house in Lynn Valley.  I guess we're splitting hairs when you're looking at these kind of prices though.

[Ace_O_Spades]

Crazy, I would have thought you'd be looking closer to a million for a house in Lynn Valley.  I guess we're splitting hairs when you're looking at these kind of prices though.

Yeah, after all what's 200k between corrupt banker fucks and shitheel real estate agents, right?

Also, thanks for the kind words everyone. I just heard that they called my current boss today to get a reference, so things are progressing. Should know by the end of the month or first week of July.

God, that's going to be so stressful. If it happens after July 1st, we can't give proper notice on our place, so we'll have to pay for another half month of rent. Then, the whirlwind of finding a place up there as well as packing up everything is going to be insane as well. I'm going to throw out so much crap. No way in Hell I'm packing and moving all the junk I've accumulated for the past decade 800km into the BC wilderness.

[PyroMenace]

Glad you are still around man, also that you're taking some big steps for the better. Do keep us updated!

[Ace_O_Spades]

So I got the job! Just gotta pass a criminal records check and then I should be moving sometime in August if everything goes well.

Still, that criminal background check can be a bit of a stickler. Who knows what's in my record? Up here in Canada we're going through quite the issue with these checks recently. The Toronto Star has been doing a series on them.

Here's one story

Here's another

So yeah, my past might come back at me here, despite having no criminal record. So, fingers crossed!

[scottws]

Awesome! Congrats!