Coquitlam is a great city.
We bought our first house in Coquitlam after a long exhaustive search.
Buying a home back then was not a good experience. Information was only via Realtors or newspaper ads, Realtors worked as sub-agents for the seller so th buyer was kept in the dark, at least we were kept in the dark. You saw the homes the Realtor wanted to sell to you. You did not have access to the inventory. Building inpections were not the norm of the day. So the buyer was at great disadvantage.
We began looking for a home in 1981, at the height of a great market. We searched Vancouver Westside but were shown properties that did not meet out needs. We searched West Vancouver and North Vancouver. I didn't want to cross the bridge but there were many new houses in the Cauldfield area and up towards Nancy Greene Way.
Out of frustration, we went to the Eagleridge area of Coquitlam and saw some new houses. He liked them, I complained about the distance to town. Ahh he says, there are Montessori pre-schools and elementary, there will be new schools. (the high school wasn't built until my son almost graduated from senior high), and rapid transit. So we loaded up the truck and moved to Coquitlam.
At that time, we lived at the top of Eagleridge and it was as "burb" as you can get. I had to drive down Lansdowne to Woodward's for groceries and shopping at Coquitlam Centre. Fine dining was pizza at Mama ........ At the foot of Johson and Nestor was a family hobby farm. Entertainment was the local movie house. The ladies liked to have coffee together,every weekday morning, sometimes stretching into the afternoon.
Then the housing market fell apart. Many builders declared bankruptcy. Home values plumetted. For us that was ok, we bought at the height of the market, would have liked to have bought at the bottom of the market, but we were not selling to buy another property. That was when interest rates ran up to 21% and we saw some of our neighbours lose their homes.
Life goes on. Summertime, we would pack picnic dinners, wait for dad to get back and we were off to Belcarra, Buntzen lake, Como lake, Lions Park in Poco or Inlet Park in PoMo. Weekends, we went to Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge for horseback riding lessons.
Coquitlam was a great place to raise a family. Our neighbourhood was full of kids. The boys went into the "woods" under the powerlines. I can still hear our neighbour Dale yelling "Joey! dinner now!" and Joey yelling back "coming." ten minutes late, Dale would yell "Joey come home NOW!" Much later, I would hear Joey getting a lesson on "what don't you understand about NOW?"
Coquitlam has the distinction of having a great Montessori elementary school at Harbourview and one the best teachers I know, Bonnie Siemens. Bonnie is every parent's dream teacher, full of life, kind, understanding, patient, encouraging, challenging, and enables the student to learn all they can, not all they want to learn.
My children lived a wonderful childhood. Friends were just down the street and the neighbours didn't mind if the kids ran through the yards to play with each other. It was a great community for family. My children have lifelong friends from Coquitlam.
Today, Coquiltam is still a great family community. Many of my clients have upsized their homes so their children can continue to grow up in Coquitlam. Now, there are more services, more retail options, more schools (Douglas College), more entertainment choices (Evergreen Theatre), and more job opportunities.