My husband Martin and I satisfied in Brussels in 2012, when I practically stepped on his toes at my neighborhood farmer’s industry. At the time, I was functioning as a security manager at NATO headquarters, and he was on a enterprise excursion from his property in the Netherlands.
Three days later, we went on our initially day. Five months afterwards, I moved to Washington, D.C., to consider a submit at the Pentagon. Pretty much a 12 months and a 50 % later on, we made the decision we’d get married and he’d be part of me in D.C.
As a Maritime Corps reserve officer, I took advantage of my VA loan added benefits, and we acquired a small property in 2014. We brought our newborn daughter house there in 2016.
But we always understood we preferred to move back again to Europe eventually.
Getting ‘the one’ in Brussels
When the pandemic hit, it gave us time to pause and plan our very long-awaited return to Europe.
We desired to be a shorter push absent from my in-guidelines in my husband’s hometown of Rotterdam as they aged. We ultimately selected Brussels, the money of Belgium and the administrative center of the European Union. We calculated that we could dwell there for considerably less than D.C. or the Netherlands, and it really is only 90 minutes from Rotterdam.
It assisted that I previously had a solid network of buddies in Brussels, much too.
Jessica calls Martin her “90-day fiancé.”
Courtesy of Jessica van Dop DeJesus
We marketed our D.C. house for $899,000 in 2021 — a 67.7% maximize compared to what we might paid out for it. And right after a calendar year renting in Brussels, we begun on the lookout for a location to buy. Our two most important prerequisites: It experienced to be walking distance to our daughter’s faculty and have an outside space major enough to take in outside.
6 months and 20 residences into our research, we ultimately uncovered “the one particular” in Saint Gilles, the neighborhood south of the city heart where I would lived ahead of.
I fell in enjoy with the 14-foot ceilings, the Art Nouveau buildings, and the fantastic parks close by.
One of Jessica’s favored items to do in Brussels is go to the markets. There are cafés close by where by she likes to purchase a coffee or, “if I am sensation a little bit festive,” a glass of wine.
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We made available 547,500 euro, or $586,767, for the apartment in Brussels, leveraging the money we had from the sale of our D.C. home to set down a 10% down payment of $58,677 and securing a 20-12 months home loan with a 3.59% interest fee.
Take a appear inside of our apartment
We dwell in a avenue-stage duplex in a setting up with only a few apartments. It can be slightly lesser than our D.C. home, but it is been really worth it. Our neighborhood is equal to Logan Circle in Washington, D.C., where by a location like ours could quickly value double or additional. We have been capable to incorporate our personal touches.
The front door prospects into our dining area — one of my beloved components of the apartment simply because of its significant ceilings and big house for our extended eating desk, wherever we host a lot of evening meal get-togethers.
Jessica is a foods and travel content material creator, and cooks very considerably just about every working day. She loves that she and her spouse and children can host meal get-togethers in the eating room.
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Upcoming to the eating home is our living space, where by I designed a “fitness nook” with my stationary bicycle and weights so I can function out although looking at Tv.
We added an American-design and style stove and oven that suits my Thanksgiving turkey, as properly as a wine fridge to our galley kitchen. We place in terrazzo floors as an homage to my childhood home in Puerto Rico.
“In Europe commonly ovens are very little, but not the circumstance with me simply because I like a major Thanksgiving turkey,” Jessica claims.
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Toward the again of the to start with floor, a little area doubles as an place of work and a sitting down home. Significant sliding doorways lead to our two-amount terrace, just one with a massive table we use in the hotter months.
Jessica and her family like to eat outside on the terrace in the warmer months. Over and further than the patio, she claims, “we have a beautiful see of the town hall.”
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The bedrooms, laundry place, storage, and bathroom are on the bottom ground.
Absence of closets and storage place is frequent in European residences. Thankfully, the former owners produced a storage program under the stairs, which we use for excess garments, domestic things, wines, and images equipment.
“My daughter’s area however has the home’s original tile, which we love,” Jessica claims.
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We have an regular-sized bed room with a wander-in closet and a small guest bed room with a total-sized mattress.
Our rest room is large for European benchmarks with a shower and tub, and we plan to renovate it in 2025.
The bedroom is “incredibly essential,” Jessica claims.
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At this time, our month to month housing prices in Brussels include things like our house loan ($2,931) and condominium charge ($65) as perfectly as utilities this sort of as electric power ($73), fuel ($70), water (about $50), and web and cable ($68).
Our lifestyle in Brussels
I pass up becoming inside of driving distance of my family members in Western New York. The key sacrifice of this go is getting so much from men and women I’m shut to. But we are satisfied to be in Brussels.
Our community, Saint Gilles, has constantly been a single of my beloved sections of the town, loaded with Portuguese, Brazilian, Eastern European, Italian, Latin American, and North African eating places and stores. We even had a Latino-themed Xmas current market with Colombian food items stands and reside salsa new music sponsored by the town hall last year!
Our daughter, now 7, is a half-Dutch, half-Puerto Rican, third-society kid, so we preferred her to increase up in a numerous local community.
Jessica’s seven-calendar year-old daughter now speaks English, Dutch, and Spanish, and will begin finding out French at university next calendar year, way too.
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Belgium shares borders with 4 countries: the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and France. This shut proximity helps make it simple to get a brief weekend trip to examine even additional spots and cultures.
I can not say leaving the U.S. for Europe meant the end of all our difficulties. But I come to feel additional articles and at simplicity right here. I will not fear as a lot about school shootings, for illustration, or the opportunity decline of employer-sponsored health care. We can manage to are living, get childcare for our daughter, eat and prepare dinner like the foodie I am, and journey on a regular basis.
And we can embrace a slower rate of everyday living and a society that prizes buddies and vacations at least as a great deal as do the job.
Jessica van Dop DeJesus is a freelance journalist, a electronic media strategist, and the founder of The Eating Traveler, a multimedia electronic system covering food stuff and travel. Jessica was elevated in Puerto Rico and commenced touring as a youthful Marine above 25 a long time back. She at this time serves as the Latinx facilitator for the Breaking Limitations in Entrepreneurship plan for Bunker Labs, providing mentorship to aspiring veteran entrepreneurs. Stick to her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube.
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