Three Websites That Can Help You Find a Home After Relocating to the U.S.
If you’re Moving to the U.S. from Canada, you might decide to take your time finding the most suitable home for your family. Here are three websites that can simplify the process and shorten the duration of your temporary living situation.
Zillow.com
Zillow.com is an easy-to-use online real estate website that allows you to simply type in your city or zip code in order to find houses on the market. You can choose from options like homes for sale or rent, or you can simply learn more about topics like mortgage rates. This resource also has categories for professional advice, local information and blogs that can show you what has worked for others.
ApartmentFinder.com
If you’d rather play it safe and buy or rent an apartment before starting your new job in the U.S., ApartmentFinder.com is one of the most reliable ways to find a complex. Since many apartment managers require credit scores, you can use the website’s features to determine your financial rating before receiving a specific quote. When browsing through your city, you’ll even have access to a list of featured apartments, giving you the option to choose luxury over simplicity.
Loopnet.com
Many people simply prefer building their own house. If this is the case with you, Loopnet.com might be a useful tool. This website allows you to type in your city or zip code to find empty lots for sale across the U.S. You even have the option of browsing properties for a potential business venture, as you can choose by categories such as automotive, health care, hotels, churches and convenience store properties. In addition, you can get more specific by learning about zoning details and available acreage.
Vote For Quality Move Management’s “Best Restaurant of Vancouver” Social Media Contest & Win!
Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of our “2012 Best Restaurant of Vancouver” Facebook contest. We have picked some of the best restaurants in Vancouver for customers and fans to vote on starting today through May 18. The winning restaurant will be awarded its inaugural title and one voter will be randomly picked to win a $150 gift certificate at the winning restaurant.
We selected the following 10 Vancouver based restaurants based on several factors including reputation, food category, local buzz and individual awards.
- Bao Bei Chinese Brasserie
- Blue Water Café + Raw Bar
- Glowbal Grill & Satay Bar
- Lift Bar Grill View Restaurant
- Lupo Restaurant + Vinoteca
- La Terrazza
- ORU Cuisine
- Provence Marinade
- Simply Thai
- Q4 Ristorante
The contest runs from Monday, May 7th to Friday May 18th at midnight PST.
Here’s how you can participate:
- Become a fan of the QMM Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/QMMVancouverAllied
- Click on the “Best Restaurant” tab.
- Vote for your favorite restaurant
- Note: Each valid Facebook Profile can vote each day during the promotion. So log-in and vote every day!
- The winning restaurant and individual winner will be announced the week of May 21, 2012. Promotion details and rules can be found on the Facebook fan page.
Once you vote, make sure you get your friends and other fans of the restaurants to vote too! Every vote helps!
Quality Move Management Inc. has offices and warehouses in Vancouver,Calgary and Edmonton and specializes in corporate moving services as well as local, long-distance consumer and cross-border moving. For more information about Quality Move Management, visit http://www.QMM.com.
How to Organize Your New Home in 5 Easy Steps
Once you arrive at your new home after cross border moving, you’ll be surrounded by boxes, or if your moving company unpacked, things might be in random places. There needs to be some strategy to where each item in your household goes. It simplifies life and makes finding items easy. As you start to rearrange, follow these five easy steps for successful organizing.
1. Make a system in the garage. This is the last space people organize, but the place where everything seems to end up. Make sure there are shelves for items relating to the car and yard, and a place for tools. Hang bicycles from the ceiling with hooks, and organize storage items like holiday decorations in plastic bins with labels. Keep hazardous materials up high out of children’s reach, and sports equipment and outdoor toys where kids can find them.
2. Get your entryway organized. Have waterproof mats for shoes, a hook for everyone’s coat, and a place for kids’ backpacks. If each person can have a bin for the random things they bring in and out, like scarves and hats, it will organize a potential mess.
3. Work on the kitchen. Put everything away except what you use on a daily basis. Put things in logical places, like the cookie sheets near the stove and the glasses near the fridge where people will be finding drinks. Conquer the “junk drawer” with dividers for like items. Make a rule that the top of the fridge remains cleaned off; this is a tempting area to make a mess with underused items.
4. Get ready for important home office work by setting up a clean and organized work space. Find a spot in the house where your desk can remain undisturbed and uncluttered. Have a place for bills, mail, catalogs, and all the items you need at your fingertips such as a stapler, tape, etc. Make it known within the family that office items stay in the office, or things might walk away!
5. Tackle the closets. Make sure each person in the family has what they need to keep a tidy closet. Are there enough shelves and bins? Do they need a shoe rack or an over-the-door hook? Help children to separate seasonal clothing and provide under-the-bed zippered bags or boxes to keep out of season items.
Once you have a plan, you will be much more likely to keep your home organized. After the chaos of cross border moving, you will definitely need a plan! Make one and stick to it.
(Photo attributed to Flickr member @LizMarie_AK via the creative common license)
Living in Canada: Top Restaurants to Try This Spring
Cross border moving to Canada may leave you pining for the restaurants of your old neighborhood, but rest assured, there are wonderful restaurants waiting for you up north. Whether in Ontario, Victoria, Edmonton, or Montreal, you will be able to find a lovely place to sit and have highly recommended faire.
The Black Cat Cafe in Ottawa, Ontario
This is a small place with seats for only 30. The owner is the sommelier and can pair your meal with the perfect wine. Expect jazz music, and fresh, surprising ingredients. When was the last time you had lobster pudding served with chorizo sausage? Take a date and enjoy the hip atmosphere.
Sotto Sotto in Toronto, Ontario
Meaning “Hush, Hush” in Italian, you can guess the mood of this restaurant: romance. The Italian cuisine is accompanied by the choice of over 5,000 bottles of wine. This menu is comforting and classic, and comes with a feeling of friendship.
Corso 32 in Edmonton
Corso 32 was the address of the chef and owner’s Campania childhood home. As the restaurant’s name harkens to the past, the food forges ahead to the future of Italian. The chef has been said to be a show-off, but who cares when the food is this good.
Ulla in Victoria
Named after the mother of the chef, Ulla is a young, urban hot-spot located in Chinatown. The menu is mostly organic, and ushers in the new generation of connoisseurs. The atmosphere is bright, with quirky decor, and a place for anyone. Try their version of the chickpea snack; pickled, deep fried and salted.
Van Horne in Montreal
Van Horne isn’t shy with its totem pole (nicknamed Bill) in the dining room and Lichtenstein silkscreened paper plates on the walls. The food tends to come by color, with the sense of style similar to the decor. With only four main courses, your decision will be easy, and your trip will have been worth it.
Cross border moving may bring you in close proximity to one of these gems. If so, take time to stop in and see what all the buzz is about.
(Photo attributed to Flickr member @stuart_spivack via the creative common license)
5 Ways to Keep Your Kids Busy This Summer
After cross border moving, you’ll be getting settled in your new home, and your kids will be adjusting to the new house and city. After they are out of school for the summer, the first thing they tend to complain about is boredom. Prevent this pre-emptively by planning for activities that will keep your kids occupied.
Set up a small garden for them to tend all summer. Look at www.kidsgardening.org. This National Gardening Association site provides multitudes of ideas for different garden types and layouts. A fun choice might be a butterfly garden. You need an area with six hours of sunlight, colorful flowering plants, and leafy plants that attract egg-laying butterflies and become food for the larvae.
Be an idea-generator for your kids. Set up a “boredom box” that they can choose 1-2 ideas from each day. Include ideas such as making sidewalk chalk art, creating a scavenger hunt, and playing dress-up. If they don’t like what is in the boredom box, they aren’t allowed to complain anymore about being bored.
Every kid needs to try a lemonade stand. Teach your kids how to have a really good one. Have it at the same time as your or a neighbor’s garage sale to increase traffic. Give each child a job; money-keeper, lemonade-mixer, sign-maker. Try to sneak in a little math as they add up their profits and subtract their expenses.
Help your kids out by setting up play dates. This is really a babysitting swap service with your friends, but will seem to the kids like a special day out. And do try to make it special. Make ice cream or go to the neighborhood pool. Choose something they can all do together despite any age differences.
You might want to invest in a museum membership. Do you have a history museum or children’s museum? Members often get special access to activities, and you can go anytime you want. Give the kids disposable cameras and make a game out of finding a list of items you create and photographing them.
With these ideas, your kids will forget their cross border moving experience, and will be excited about the summer ahead.
(Photo attributed to Flickr member @sfajane via the creative common license)
