People & Places
Hobden's Canadian blog May 2008
Weather and taxes conspire against Darren Hobden this month - but there's always his children and local beach to keep him happy
After having a good start to spring it turned wet and cold again. We also had a couple of days of snow and frosts up until the end of April. To get this amount of snow this late is very unusual. We even had snow on the blossoms of our plum trees!
We've been busy planting out the vegetable plot - radish, parsnips, beans carrot, broccoli and onions are all now planted. The garlic we planted in October is growing very well and should be ready in July.
Daniel's basketball team played well in the Junior BC Provincial Championship. Overall they finished 7th in BC and finished their season very well. The winners were the team from Victoria that Cowichan beat in the Vancouver Island Championships. Daniel was invited along to the Senior BC Provincial Championships in Vancouver with the schools senior team. He got to play in a couple of the games and was pleased as the players in this tournament are up to two years older. This is a good experience and he is aiming to return next year. Anja's dance club were in a dance competition in Nanaimo and did very well. She is now busy practicing for the end of season show in June. Both Daniel and Anja got good results in their school reports so we are pleased and proud of them.
The hummingbirds have arrived and we have four different ones coming to our feeder. Hummingbirds are amazing and keep us totally mesmirised when they are around.
I am still managing to go down to our local beach as often as possible. I find it a relaxing, yet stimulating, place to be. It's a very beautiful place to enjoy and we are lucky to have it so close.
And finally, it is tax return time. Yes, we all hate doing tax returns here in Canada as we did in the UK. Some things never change!
Tip Of The Month: When buying a house in Canada you enlist the help of a realtor. In Canada you can use a realtor as a buyers agent. What is the advantage of this? Mette works as a buyer's agent as part of a real estate team so we will explain from her perspective. Mette's job involves finding people a home in terms of their criteria. She arranges viewings and accompanies clients to them. Once a client has decided that they have found their dream home Mette negotiates the buying of the house and writing the contract. In Canada when a house is under offer there are subjects in place, normally subject to finance, building inspection, insurance, septic and well where applicable, and these are conditional for a set time (10 to 14 days). Mette arranges the building inspection, septic and well inspections if applicable and can put people in touch with a mortgage broker. She meets the clients for the walk through with the building inspector and if any issues are brought up that may require re-negotiating she deals with it. Once the subjects are off the house it is sold and nobody else can buy it. As well as working as a Realtor in our area, Mette can also refer you to a realtor in your chosen area and you can have contact with a realtor before your relocation. You can contact Mette directly by email with any real estate questions.
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Please check out our website Emigreat for information about Canada.