(Note: This post was written by Laurel Regan and originally published in a separate blog called “Why Windsor…”, which was later merged with Alphabet Salad.)
Continued from:
“Backgrounder: Ready for a change (Part 1)”
“Backgrounder: Ready for a change (Part 2)”
“Backgrounder: Ready for a change (Part 3)”
Now that the option of leaving Victoria was actually on the table, all sorts of choices and possibilities began to present themselves for consideration. Hours upon hours upon hours were spent online researching cities all over Canada – job market, climate, house prices, cost of living, ease of travel (no ferries allowed!), size, and so on. We went in with our minds open to pretty much everything, and worked towards narrowing down our choices to the place (or places) that suited us best… and time after time, more than any other location, Windsor kept ticking all the boxes for us. Despite some of its well-publicized concerns (the dismal job market being the main one), Windsor fit.
Obviously no location is perfect, every location has its drawbacks, and each individual has their own specific preferences and desires for the place they call home… so what it comes down to, really, is weighing the options, calculating the pros and cons of a particular location, and determining which side tips the scale.
Some of our considerations and conclusions:
- Climate: It’s a given that leaving Victoria and moving to just about any other part of the country means that we’ll experience more extreme weather… but there’s extreme, and then there’s extreme. Overall, Windsor‘s weather seems to be milder than the other places we investigated… not quite as much of a shock to the system.
- House prices: As discussed in my previous post, this was the very thing that first attracted us to Windsor!
- Cost of living: Windsor didn’t necessarily have a huge edge over any other city in Canada, as getting off the Island immediately means that life – groceries, gas prices, etc. – is cheaper, period! One telling point, though, is that when gas prices in Victoria were up over $1.10 per litre, Windsorites were paying around $0.89. Nice.
- Ease of travel: We absolutely love Windsor‘s location – in fact, I’d have to say that along with the cost of real estate, location is probably the city’s biggest selling feature for me. So many interesting places are within a day’s drive of Windsor (with no ferry fares!), which means that the possibilities for weekend getaways are endless. (For example, the notion that after driving for around five hours we could be in Chicago… Chicago!… is completely dizzying.)
- Size: Windsor‘s not too big, not too small – it’s just right.
So, Windsor it is.
Next steps: Plan for future employment; get our home ready for sale, put it on the market, and sell it; take a trip to Windsor to find and buy a new home… then move!
Life is good.
The Windsor area does get more tornados… No chance moving to Ottawa?
It does… that was one of the drawbacks! (Then again, Victoria has earthquakes… and the threat of The Big One always hangs over our heads… so tornados seem rather manageable by comparison!)
We did consider Ottawa, but decided against it for a few reasons. One was that the cost of living isn't all that different from Victoria, and we really want to be mortgage-free (or at least have a very small mortgage). Also, Ottawa wouldn't be a change at all for one half of this couple – he lived there for all but two or three years of his entire life before coming to Victoria!
That said, we are looking forward to LOTS of visits. And you will always be welcome in our new place! 🙂
So enjoying this blog, just thought I'd let you know :=)
Thank you so much! 🙂
While Windsor is technically in what we call Tornado Alley, Windsor itself doesn't have major "Look honey, we're featured on CNN!"-type tornadoes. We had one last year (or maybe it was the year before that?) that touched down only a few blocks from me, and was actually verified as a tornado by Environment Canada (this is key, because most of the time what we SWEAR was a tornado turns out to just be high winds), but was still only the lowest category.
There was one this summer that hit Point Pelee in Leamington, and that also was only an F1. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/windsor/story/2010/06/07/wdr-leamington-tornado-100607.html So, while yes, we do get tornadoes, they're nowhere near the scale of the ones we hear hitting Kansas and the like.
We have some pretty big windstorms around here… no tornados, but definitely lots of high winds (especially downtown where I work). I'm a bit nervous about the tornado aspect of Windsor, but I'm also fairly petrified about the possibility of a major earthquake here in Victoria! I'll just trade one natural disaster for another. 🙂
Hi Dawni!
I refound your blog.. it was nice to read again from you!
Silvia recently posted… Biergarten
So good to see you again, Silvia… I’m glad you found me! I’ve been spending most of my time these days writing in my other blog (http://www.alphabetsalad.com), so this one has been sadly neglected of late! I’d love if you’d drop by Alphabet Salad so we can keep in touch. I’ll check out your blog as well!
Laurel Regan recently posted… Windsor Square Column: A Challenge To Make Windsor Better
Trackbacks: