[m&mlang]

Hello. Our family is considering a job offer in Ballarat, Victoria. If only we lived closer to Novi, we could help eachother. We are near the middle of Michigan, close to Mt. Pleasant, which is about 2 hours from Novi. Get ready for the cold! We are ready to be done with it for sure. If you have any advice about the area, please write. God Bless your new venture!
melindalang@ymail.com
Matthew & Melinda

[renter8319]

Originally Posted by Aussie_Bob

Thanks for all the info about the different areas. It will give me a good place to start.

As for the commute from Ann Arbor to Novi, is it really that far or is the traffic just terrible?

@Skerly, I like your story about walking - yes I am very used to walking to keep fit, etc - guess I'll have to get used to the stares.

yeah it's really that far. traffic in detroit isn't terrible but around novi it's pretty bad. royal oak is a great area you might enjoy or maybe farmington hills. both thes places will give you short commutes. brighton is a nice area, short commute and you should be able to avoid the traffic problems. in addition it's about a 15-20 minute drive to ann arbor. which is a vibrant area.

[Mkach]

I used to delivery drive and I can tell you this about the Ann Arbor to Novi commute. Its about 30 to 40 miles and on a good day non rush hour about 35-45 minutes. Rush hour can be a horror but is plausible.

Good luck to you =)

Originally Posted by Aussie_Bob

Thanks for all the info about the different areas. It will give me a good place to start.

As for the commute from Ann Arbor to Novi, is it really that far or is the traffic just terrible?

@Skerly, I like your story about walking - yes I am very used to walking to keep fit, etc - guess I'll have to get used to the stares.

[Aussie_Bob]

Originally Posted by m&mlang

Hello. Our family is considering a job offer in Ballarat, Victoria. If only we lived closer to Novi, we could help eachother. We are near the middle of Michigan, close to Mt. Pleasant, which is about 2 hours from Novi. Get ready for the cold! We are ready to be done with it for sure. If you have any advice about the area, please write. God Bless your new venture!
melindalang@ymail.com
Matthew & Melinda

Hi Matthew & Melinda,

Sorry for the late reply. Ballarat is a long way from Sydney and I have never been there, but believe it is beautiful. I imagine you will be in a for a bit of a culture shock moving from Michigan to country Victoria, but I am sure you will enjoy it immensely if you give it a go! I know I am going to enjoy all the differences I come across when I move to Michigan - it is all part of the fun!

I think we will be living closer to Ann Arbor now and we leave this Friday. So exciting!

AB

[JGatti]

Well Bob unlike some of the others I do not agree with the Ann Arbor suggestion. Nice city, but heck if you can choose where to live I'd choose not to commute. I'm sorry but the drive to Novi from Ann Arbor would suck daily if you ask me. Novi is and will be a very nice and very SAFE city for a long time. There is all the shopping you need and I feel is a good location to go to just about anywhere for a night out. I'd prefer to drive for a night out than for work. Just my opinion.

[Aussie_Bob]

Originally Posted by JGatti

Well Bob unlike some of the others I do not agree with the Ann Arbor suggestion. Nice city, but heck if you can choose where to live I'd choose not to commute. I'm sorry but the drive to Novi from Ann Arbor would suck daily if you ask me. Novi is and will be a very nice and very SAFE city for a long time. There is all the shopping you need and I feel is a good location to go to just about anywhere for a night out. I'd prefer to drive for a night out than for work. Just my opinion.

Thanks for the tip. I guess we will find out soon as we will be staying in Ann Arbor when we get there before finding a place. We have friends there so it would be nice to be close to them at least initially.

[kimba01]

Enjoy your trip Aussie_Bob! Should be interesting. Right now we have snow. Not uncommon in April, but it doesn't happen every year. At any rate, by April I am done with the cold. The poor Robins are at a loss as to what to do and I see dead ones all over. By Friday this should be all gone and a bit warmer.

Summers can be hot, anywhere from 70s to 90s. The temp is less of a problem than the humidity. It can be brutal. I love the summers but many people do not appreciate the high humidity. It is also a good breeding ground for those pesky mosquitos. They don't bug (no pun intended!)me too much but they love my husband and eat him up!

I don't know what kind of weather you are used to there as far as heat, humidity, and cold, but the winters can be very cold and very snowy. This year was both. Freezing single digit temps. The snow is pretty for a while, to me, but I long for the sunshine. Depends on what you like.

Good luck and have fun! Ann Arbor is a fun town! Enjoy your exploring!

[Ter-Claire]

Here's a slightly different perspective.... I've traveled all over the USA, and suburban living is pretty much the same everywhere. The typical weekday: going to work followed by errands, some exercise, and home-related work in the evenings before heading to bed to start it all over again the next day. For this, it doesn't really matter what the metro area's "big picture" is all about...as long as you have a nice home and a safe neighborhood with daily conveniences nearby, that's all that matters. How your location within a metro matters is during your free time (mostly on the weekends). Specifially, how many things are there to do in the metro area and how easy is it for you to get to them. Detroit and its suburbs have a plethera of things to do each day, and especially on the weekends. But, as mentioned in earlier posts, in the Detroit metro, getting to them will mean driving to them. Novi is one of the best places to live in order to be able to drive to events ANYWHERE in metro Detroit. The freeway network from Novi heads west, south, east and southeast into Detroit proper. You can live in Novi and have a very short commute to work each day, and also easily drive to fun things in Brighton/Howell, Northville/Plymouth, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Royal Oak, Pontiac/Auburn Hills, etc. You can be to even the furthest of these other communities within 40 minutes to enjoy any shopping, restaurants, festivals, fairs, nightlife, etc. that you might like. Also, it really isn't that long of a drive to get to Lansing or Flint either, so that opens up even more possible things to do. I grew up in a part of metro Detroit in which it took 20 minutes just to GET to a freeway, so we ended up not going to a lot of places and events that sounded very interesting just because they would have taken an hour and a half to get to them. Novi is great because we can get anywhere at any time without a problem.