Moving to Hamilton? - Page 13

omro · #**241** Posted **Nov 1, 2008, 10:26 AM**

Well, that's my second visit to Hamilton completed...

I'm totally sold now. Sign me up.

I need to get my affairs in order, sell up here, find a job there and then somewhere to live. That easy, huh!

Can't wait.

IronWarrior · #**242** Posted **Nov 1, 2008, 8:01 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by omro

Well, that's my second visit to Hamilton completed...

I'm totally sold now. Sign me up.

I need to get my affairs in order, sell up here, find a job there and then somewhere to live. That easy, huh!

Can't wait.

Glad you enjoyed your visit! Its nice to see people 'choosing' to live here! Its a great city! regardless of what some of the locals may say! lots of history and beautiful homes and buildings...cheers!

comadriver · #**243** Posted **Nov 3, 2008, 12:00 PM**

Hello everyone. Count me in. We bought a house and moving to Hamilton from Mississauga in late December '08. Any suggestions on local truck rental, favourite lumber and hardware stores will be appreciated. We will be doing a lot of renovations initially.

Can't wait!

BrianE · #**244** Posted **Nov 3, 2008, 2:22 PM**

Yeah, don't rent Uhaul. They blow.

Try Carter Rentals, much much much much much better.

highwater · #**245** Posted **Nov 3, 2008, 2:44 PM**

Turkstra and Acheson are our locally owned independent lumber stores. Turkstra's got alot more going for it IMO. Acheson's pretty limited as a hardware store, but not bad in the lumber department. Apart from that we've got the usual big box array: Home Despot, Rona, etc.

SteelTown · #**246** Posted **Nov 3, 2008, 2:51 PM**

Welcome comadriver!

Home Hardware is always better, good service and more neighbourhoody, well the one at Westcliffe is. But yea if you need wood and renovation items check out Turkstra.

Millstone · #**247** Posted **Nov 3, 2008, 3:26 PM**

But Turkstra is a chain, and thus hated by everyone amirite?

raisethehammer · #**248** Posted **Nov 3, 2008, 4:14 PM**

Arruda's is a great little hardware store at James and Barton. I go there all the time.
As for lumber I think you get better quality from Turkstra than the big stores like Home Depot etc....

Also, I have a question for FairHamilton that should fit into this thread:
Your signature now says "one of my best life decisions was moving to Hamilton".
That's quite a positive statement. Please elaborate on it if you don't mind. I'd love to hear your reasons for this, and perhaps it'll be of use to others on this thread who are looking to move here.
Cheers

SteelTown · #**249** Posted **Nov 3, 2008, 4:25 PM**

Wood from Turkstra is better than Home Depot. A few years ago I helped build a deck and we got most of the wood from Turkstra but we ran out and got more wood from Home Depot. All the wood from Home Depot shrank much more than the Turkstra's wood. Guess Home Depot's wood has more water.

FairHamilton · #**250** Posted **Nov 3, 2008, 5:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

Also, I have a question for FairHamilton that should fit into this thread:
Your signature now says "one of my best life decisions was moving to Hamilton".
That's quite a positive statement. Please elaborate on it if you don't mind. I'd love to hear your reasons for this, and perhaps it'll be of use to others on this thread who are looking to move here.
Cheers

Because I'm totally happy with my decision, no regrets. I've made lots of good decisions in my life, and I've also made my fair share of bad ones (some horribly bad). With the decision to move to Hamilton I have no regrets.

I'm a Toronto transplant with 10 years of living in K-W (1986 - 1996), my wife grew up in Hamilton and lived in Toronto for about 8 or 9 years. I had to work hard to convince her to come back to Hamilton. When I originally sprung the idea on her she was dead set against it. I pushed her for a few months, and finally she told me to look at houses on my own. She fully expected me to look for a few weeks and then move on to something else. I guess she was wrong, and admits "I was right", and I keep reminding her of that fact.

We love our house (the 2nd one I looked at), enjoy our neighbours (except for the vacant house), love walking the Farmers Market and walking to it every Saturday (even when the prostitute asked me for a cigarette), I'm a regular at Reardons (the butcher in Toronto didn't know me and we regulars there, but if you mention my name to Paul Readon he'll know me)......

We could have never comfortably afforded the type of house we wanted in Toronto. My wife and I are very debt adverse, and we would have been sweating bullets with a humongously large mortgage and that house wouldn't hold a candle to what we have in Hamilton.

We've been dedicated public transit users for a few years (my wife longer than me), and that has only increased since moving to Hamilton. We take the HSR exclusively for downtown travel, or walk places because they are close. Now, I can only imagine if the city was more walkable how much I'd walk (i.e. less one-way streets).

In Toronto we drove much more (even as a TTC Metropass holder), I used to drive 50,000+ kms every year (i.e. I got rid of my 5 year old Chevy Lumina 1997 to 2002 with 276,000 kms), and since moving to Hamilton we don't even drive much anymore. I filled the car on Saturday $22 for 3 weeks of driving.

I've got a few projects on the go, one which might launch in it's first stage next week (stay tuned). And I have another project I could get going if I could find a web application programmer, or two. Does anyone know any who would be interested in work for a share of a start-up company (partnership deal)?

I'm just plain happy with my decision to move to Hamilton.

BTW, welcome to Hamilton comadriver. Maybe it was mentioned but I missed it, but where in the city did you purchase your house?

raisethehammer · #**251** Posted **Nov 3, 2008, 7:08 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by FairHamilton

Because I'm totally happy with my decision, no regrets. I've made lots of good decisions in my life, and I've also made my fair share of bad ones (some horribly bad). With the decision to move to Hamilton I have no regrets.

I'm a Toronto transplant with 10 years of living in K-W (1986 - 1996), my wife grew up in Hamilton and lived in Toronto for about 8 or 9 years. I had to work hard to convince her to come back to Hamilton. When I originally sprung the idea on her she was dead set against it. I pushed her for a few months, and finally she told me to look at houses on my own. She fully expected me to look for a few weeks and then move on to something else. I guess she was wrong, and admits "I was right", and I keep reminding her of that fact.

We love our house (the 2nd one I looked at), enjoy our neighbours (except for the vacant house), love walking the Farmers Market and walking to it every Saturday (even when the prostitute asked me for a cigarette), I'm a regular at Reardons (the butcher in Toronto didn't know me and we regulars there, but if you mention my name to Paul Readon he'll know me)......

We could have never comfortably afforded the type of house we wanted in Toronto. My wife and I are very debt adverse, and we would have been sweating bullets with a humongously large mortgage and that house wouldn't hold a candle to what we have in Hamilton.

We've been dedicated public transit users for a few years (my wife longer than me), and that has only increased since moving to Hamilton. We take the HSR exclusively for downtown travel, or walk places because they are close. Now, I can only imagine if the city was more walkable how much I'd walk (i.e. less one-way streets).

In Toronto we drove much more (even as a TTC Metropass holder), I used to drive 50,000+ kms every year (i.e. I got rid of my 5 year old Chevy Lumina 1997 to 2002 with 276,000 kms), and since moving to Hamilton we don't even drive much anymore. I filled the car on Saturday $22 for 3 weeks of driving.

I've got a few projects on the go, one which might launch in it's first stage next week (stay tuned). And I have another project I could get going if I could find a web application programmer, or two. Does anyone know any who would be interested in work for a share of a start-up company (partnership deal)?

I'm just plain happy with my decision to move to Hamilton.

BTW, welcome to Hamilton comadriver. Maybe it was mentioned but I missed it, but where in the city did you purchase your house?

awesome stuff. thanks for the response. It's cool to hear your experience so far. Let's hope it only gets better.
By the way, I'm sure you've told us, but where do you live??
I'm at the market and Denningers (Jackson Square) every Saturday...we'll have to grab an eggwich+coffee together some week!

FairHamilton · #**252** Posted **Nov 3, 2008, 8:23 PM**

I live in the "Heart of the Hammer", South Stipeley. South of King & East of Sherman.

omro · #**253** Posted **Nov 3, 2008, 8:36 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by FairHamilton

I live in the "Heart of the Hammer", South Stipeley. South of King & East of Sherman.

What's that area like, east of Sherman? My brother has been told that the Sherman "belt" is pretty bad, but the further east you go towards Gage, things pick up again.

When we were house hunting for my Mum we didn't look further east than Wentworth.

comadriver · #**254** Posted **Nov 3, 2008, 8:58 PM**

Thank you all for the warm welcome and helpful suggestions!

Is Carter Rentals cheaper than Uhaul?

Quote:

Originally Posted by FairHamilton

I'm just plain happy with my decision to move to Hamilton.

BTW, welcome to Hamilton comadriver. Maybe it was mentioned but I missed it, but where in the city did you purchase your house?

FairHamilton. We really liked the neighborhood between Gage Park and Ottawa St, south of Main, and ended up finding exactly what we were looking for. For the same money, we probably would not even get a decent condo in Mississauga.

FairHamilton · #**255** Posted **Nov 4, 2008, 12:58 AM**

^ U-Haul has a reputation for not having the best maintained vehicles. That's my word of warning.

We used Discount (North York to Hamilton) who I've used before and everything went fine with our rental. Carter, Discount, et al are all pretty much the same.

You are a little east of us, and that's a really nice area you bought in, congrats. And I know all about the price motivation we purchased our 2.5 storey home in February 2008 for less than a one bedroom condo in TO, Mississauga, etc as well.

raisethehammer · #**256** Posted **Nov 4, 2008, 2:26 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by FairHamilton

I live in the "Heart of the Hammer", South Stipeley. South of King & East of Sherman.

How long is that walk to the Farmers Market?

My office is in that neighbourhood...between Sherman and Gage. I love the streets around there - Balsam, Leinster, Prospect etc.....

FairHamilton · #**257** Posted **Nov 4, 2008, 3:23 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

How long is that walk to the Farmers Market?

My office is in that neighbourhood...between Sherman and Gage. I love the streets around there - Balsam, Leinster, Prospect etc.....

About a 35 minute walk, and we take the HSR home with our market purchases.

Yes, there are many nice streets in the neighbourhood. Some sketchy houses, but they are becoming less, even in the past 6 months. There is a Neighbourhood Association getting started (I'm a director) and many people working very hard to make the area even better than it already is now.

All great stuff.

adam · #**258** Posted **Nov 4, 2008, 3:55 AM**

Nice!

IronWarrior · #**259** Posted **Nov 4, 2008, 7:03 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by omro

What's that area like, east of Sherman? My brother has been told that the Sherman "belt" is pretty bad, but the further east you go towards Gage, things pick up again.

When we were house hunting for my Mum we didn't look further east than Wentworth.

You should check out the Gage park area... lots of nice homes in that area! you could pick up a beauty for 250,000 easily! check out Rosslyn, Holton, Leinster, Balsam.. most of the nice old homes in that area are on the south side of king close to main...good luck.

IronWarrior · #**260** Posted **Nov 4, 2008, 7:06 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by comadriver

Hello everyone. Count me in. We bought a house and moving to Hamilton from Mississauga in late December '08. Any suggestions on local truck rental, favourite lumber and hardware stores will be appreciated. We will be doing a lot of renovations initially.

Can't wait!

I only shop at Turkstra, Rona and Arrudas 'nice little hardware store' that alot of locals dont even know about! Home Depot sucks!lol I just had some bad dealings with them and will never shop there again!