[DrCaleb]

I had a very different experience from Thanos.

I loved Fort Mac. Sure, it was remote and expensive. But the people I worked with and their friends formed a social circle that made life good. Mountain biking on the extensive trail system, softball tournaments followed by hot tub parties. Volleyball leagues in winter. Golf tournaments thrown by employers (Syncrude, Suncor) where the grand prize was a car. A nice car!

It wasn't terrible. Only that drive down south once a month was the shits.

[Freakinoldguy]

Buyer beware is fine and we can sit here and bitch about homeowners not doing due diligence by buying homes along a river that is prone to flooding but, where is the outrage against the municipalities and cities that allow builders permission to build homes on lots that they and the bureaucrats known are located on things like flood planes.

Seems to me that the new normal of cities and municipalities becoming addicted to tax revenues played no small part in all this. So, despite not doing their homework the owners should still be able to go after both the city/municipality and the builders for some compensation given that they weren't the only ones to blame.

[bootlegga]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

That fact, the cheap price for the home and the recent "total renovation" were giant alarm bells so we immediately passed on it and decided to stay in the earthquake zone since there was less chance of that happening than of Grand Forks flooding and taking out that house.

Last time I was in Castlegar, you could buy a house and put it on a credit card.

But the place to get a summer home right now is Japan. Some southern islands are down 80% in population as the young ones move to the cities. Some small towns are completely abandoned, and you can get property for just the back taxes.

Having lived in rural Japan, I can vouch for this.

Because of the small size of the island nation, no big city is more than an hour or two away, yet all the same services one would expect (internet access, cell service, good restaurants, hospitals, schools, etc.) are available and the technology is usually near the cutting edge in rural Japan, unlike rural Alberta.

When I lived there 20 years ago, they were lightyears ahead of Canada and I'm genuinely curious how much further along they are now.

Tack on generally pleasant weather most of the year (typhoon season and a very hot/humid August being the exceptions), lots of great beaches, nature parks, and a 2000 year history chock full of artifacts and ancient buildings, and Japan is a great place. We were planning on visiting in 2022, but with other travel plans postponed by COVID-19, we might have to put that off for a year or two.

I've often thought that partial retirement to a beachfront home in Japan would be a great way to live. Despite many reports of Japan being expensive to live in, living in Japan can be done affordably if you are willing to live like the Japanese (use their amazing transit instead of driving everywhere, eat Japanese food mostly instead of Western, accept a smaller home/apartment to live in, etc.).

[DrCaleb]

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

Buyer beware is fine and we can sit here and bitch about homeowners not doing due diligence by buying homes along a river that is prone to flooding but, where is the outrage against the municipalities and cities that allow builders permission to build homes on lots that they and the bureaucrats known are located on things like flood planes.

To be fair, the area of Fort Mac in the picture has been the main part since it was built. It was built at the convergence of four rivers on purpose. But flooding rarely happened, it was only if there was an ice dam downstream in the Athabasca River that would cause flooding in spring time.

It's only recently that flooding has started on the Hangingstone and Clearwater rivers because of construction along those bodies.

[Thanos]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

I had a very different experience from Thanos.

I loved Fort Mac. Sure, it was remote and expensive. But the people I worked with and their friends formed a social circle that made life good. Mountain biking on the extensive trail system, softball tournaments followed by hot tub parties. Volleyball leagues in winter. Golf tournaments thrown by employers (Syncrude, Suncor) where the grand prize was a car. A nice car!

It wasn't terrible. Only that drive down south once a month was the shits.

I was temping as a contractor on jobs that lasted only a few months at most. I lived in the hotels or camps. Probably a lot different for you if you were a renter or had the accomodations provided by the big employers. It would be easier to look at the place as being OK in your case but when I was doing shifts of 21 days in a row at 12 hours a day the last thing I ever thought of was socializing or putting down any sort of roots.

I did apply about a million times to get on permanently with any of the big companies up there but didn't get even a single call for an interview. Story of my life I guess, serve a disposable purpose and then get tossed away when the immediate need was finished. I should probably change all my internet pseudonyms to "Kleenex" as an indication of my true reality and purpose in this world. Where did it all go wrong?

[DrCaleb]

Yes, I rented a little, but eventually bought a couple places. Not much, a place near the river in Waterways, a condo in Abasand.

Both burned down in the fires a couple years back.