My husband Martin and I met in Brussels in 2012, when I literally stepped on his toes at my neighborhood farmers market. I was working as a security manager at NATO headquarters at the time and he was on a business trip from his home in the Netherlands.
Three days later we had our first date. Five weeks later I moved to Washington, DC, to take a post at the Pentagon. Almost a year and a half later we decided we would get married and he would join me in DC
As a Marine Corps Reserve Officer, I took advantage of my VA loan and we bought a small house in 2014. In 2016 we brought our newborn daughter home there.
But we always knew we wanted to move back to Europe eventually.
Looking for ‘the one’ in Brussels
When the pandemic hit, it gave us time to pause and plan our long-awaited return to Europe.
We wanted to be a short drive from my in-laws in my husband’s hometown of Rotterdam as they got older. Ultimately we chose Brussels, the capital of Belgium and the administrative center of the European Union. We have calculated that we could live there for less than DC or the Netherlands, and it’s only 90 minutes from Rotterdam.
It also helped that I already had a strong network of friends in Brussels.
We sold our DC home in 2021 for $899,000 – a 67.7% increase over what we paid for it. And after a year of renting in Brussels, we started looking for a home to buy. Our two main requirements: it had to be within walking distance of our daughter’s school and have an outdoor area large enough for outdoor dining.
Six months and twenty apartments after our search, we finally found ‘the one’ in Sint-Gillis, the neighborhood south of the city center where I had lived before.
I fell in love with the 4.5 meter high ceilings, the Art Nouveau buildings and the large parks nearby.
We offered 547,500 euros, or $586,767, for the Brussels apartment, using the money we had from the sale of our DC home to make a 10% down payment of $58,677 and a mortgage with a term of Can be taken out for 20 years with an interest rate of 3.59%.
Take a look at our apartment
We live in a duplex at street level in a building with only three apartments. It’s a little smaller than our house in DC, but it was worth it. Our neighborhood is similar to Logan Circle in Washington, DC, where there is a place like ours can easily cost double or more. We were able to add our own accents.
The front door leads to our dining room – one of my favorite parts of the apartment because of the high ceilings and the large space for our long dining table, where we host many dinner parties.
Next to the dining room is our living room, where I have created a “fitness corner” with my exercise bike and weights, so that I can train while watching TV.
We added an American-style stove and oven to match my Thanksgiving turkey, as well as a wine refrigerator to our galley kitchen. We installed terrazzo floors as a tribute to my childhood home in Puerto Rico.
At the back of the first floor, a small room serves as an office and a sitting room. Large sliding doors lead to our two-level terrace, one of which has a large table that we use in the warmer months.
The bedrooms, laundry room, storage room and bathroom are located on the ground floor.
Lack of closets and storage space is common in European apartments. Fortunately, the former owners created a storage system under the stairs, which we use for extra clothes, household items, wines and photography equipment.
We have a medium sized bedroom with a walk-in closet and a small guest room with a full size bed.
Our bathroom is large by European standards, with a shower and bath, and we plan to renovate it in 2025.
Currently, our monthly housing costs in Brussels include our mortgage ($2,931) and condo fees ($65), as well as utilities such as electricity ($73), gas ($70), water (about $50), and internet and cable ($68).
Our life in Brussels
I miss being within driving distance of my family in Western New York. The main sacrifice of this move is being so far away from the people I am close to. But we are happy to be in Brussels.
Our neighborhood, Saint-Gilles, has always been one of my favorite parts of the city, full of Portuguese, Brazilian, Eastern European, Italian, Latin American and North African restaurants and shops. Last year we even had a Latino-themed Christmas market, with Colombian food stalls and live salsa music, sponsored by the town hall!
Our daughter, now seven, is a half Dutch, half Puerto Rican third culture child, so we wanted her to grow up in a diverse community.
Belgium borders four countries: the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and France. This proximity makes it easy to take a weekend getaway and discover even more places and cultures.
I can’t say that leaving the US for Europe was the end of all our problems. But I feel more satisfied and comfortable here. For example, I don’t worry much about school shootings, or the potential loss of employer-sponsored health care. We can afford to live, get childcare for our daughter, eat and cook like the foodie that I am, and travel regularly.
And we can embrace a slower pace of life and a culture where friends and vacations are valued at least as highly as work.
Jessica from Dop DeJesus is a freelance journalist, digital media strategist and the founder of The Food Traveler, a multimedia digital platform about food and travel. Jessica grew up in Puerto Rico and began traveling as a young Marine over 25 years ago. She currently serves as a Latinx facilitator for the Breaking Barriers in Entrepreneurship program for Bunker Labs, where she provides mentorship to aspiring veteran entrepreneurs. Follow her further Instagram, Facebook, Tweet, PinterestAnd YouTube.
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