My husband Martin and I met in Brussels in 2012, when I literally stepped on his toes at my neighborhood farmers’ market. At the time, I was working as a security manager at NATO Headquarters 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 position at the Pentagon. Almost a year and a half later, we decided to get married and he would join me in Washington DC.
As a Marine Corps Reserve officer, I took advantage of my VA loan benefits and we purchased a small house in 2014. We brought our newborn daughter home there in 2016.
But we always knew we wanted to return to Europe eventually.
Finding “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 within driving distance of my in-laws in Rotterdam, my husband’s hometown, as they got older. We ultimately chose Brussels, the capital of Belgium and the administrative center of the European Union. We calculated that we could live there for less than Washington DC or the Netherlands, and it’s only 90 minutes from Rotterdam.
The fact that I already had a solid network of friends in Brussels helped me.
Jessica calls Martin her “90 Day Fiancé.”
Courtesy of Jessica van Dop DeJesus
We sold our Washington home for $899,000 in 2021, a 67.7% increase over what we paid for it. And after a year of renting in Brussels, we started looking for accommodation to buy. Our two main requirements: It had to be within walking distance of our daughter’s school and have an outdoor space large enough to eat outside.
Six months and 20 apartments after our search, we finally found “the right one” in Saint Gilles, the neighborhood south of the city center where I previously lived.
I fell in love with the 14 foot ceilings, Art Nouveau buildings and large parks nearby.
One of Jessica’s favorite things to do in Brussels is going to the market. There are nearby cafes where she likes to order a coffee or, “if I’m feeling a little festive,” a glass of wine.
Federico Campanale
We offered 547,500 euros, or $586,767, for the apartment in Brussels, using the cash we had from the sale of our house in Washington to put down a 10% deposit of $58,677 and getting a 20-year mortgage with an interest rate of 3.59%.
Take a look inside our apartment
We live in a ground floor duplex in a building with only three apartments. It’s slightly smaller than our house in Washington DC, but it was worth it. Our neighborhood is the equivalent of Logan Circle in Washington, D.C., where a place like ours could easily cost double or more. We were able to add our own touches.
The front door leads to our dining room – one of my favorite parts of the apartment because of its high ceilings and ample space for our long dining table, where we host many dinner parties.
Jessica is a food and travel content creator and cooks almost every day. She loves being able to host dinners in the dining room with her family.
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Next to the dining room is our living room, where I’ve set up a “fitness corner” with my stationary bike and weights so I can work out while watching TV.
We added an American style stove and oven suitable for my Thanksgiving turkey, and a wine refrigerator to our galley kitchen. We installed terrazzo floors in homage to my childhood home in Puerto Rico.
“In Europe, the ovens are usually very small, but that’s not the case in my house because I love big Thanksgiving turkeys,” Jessica says.
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Towards the rear of the first floor, a small room also serves as an office and living room. Large sliding doors lead out to our split level terrace, one with a large table which we use in the warmer months.
Jessica and her family enjoy eating outside on the patio during the warmer months. Beyond the patio, she said, “we have a beautiful view of City Hall.”
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The bedrooms, laundry room, storage and bathroom are on the ground floor.
Lack of closet and storage space is common in European apartments. Fortunately, the previous owners installed a storage system under the stairs, which we use for extra clothes, household items, wines and photographic equipment.
“My daughter’s bedroom still has the original tiles from the house, which we love,” Jessica says.
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We have a medium sized bedroom with a walk in closet and a small guest bedroom with a double bed.
Our bathroom is large to European standards with a shower and bathtub, and we plan to renovate it in 2025.
The room is “very basic,” says Jessica.
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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 (around $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’m 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, filled with Portuguese, Brazilian, Eastern European, Italian, Latin American and North African restaurants and shops. We even had a Latino-themed Christmas market with Colombian food stalls and live salsa music, sponsored by the town hall last year!
Our daughter, now seven, is a half-Dutch, half-Puerto Rican, third-culture kid, so we wanted her to grow up in a diverse community.
Jessica’s seven-year-old daughter already speaks English, Dutch and Spanish and will also start learning French at school next year.
Federico Campanale
Belgium shares borders with four countries: the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and France. This proximity makes it easy to take a short weekend break to explore even more places and cultures.
I can’t say that leaving the United States for Europe means the end of all our problems. But I feel more content and comfortable here. I don’t worry as much about school shootings, for example, or the potential loss of employer-sponsored health care. We can afford to live, look after our daughter’s children, eat and cook like the foodie that I am and travel regularly.
And we can embrace a slower pace of life and a culture that values friends and vacations at least as much as work.
Jessica van Dop DeJesus is a freelance journalist, digital media strategist and founder of The gastronomic traveler, a multimedia digital platform covering food and travel. Jessica grew up in Puerto Rico and began traveling as a young Marine over 25 years ago. She is currently a Latinx facilitator for the Breaking Barriers in Entrepreneurship program for Bunker Labs, providing mentorship to aspiring and seasoned entrepreneurs. Follow her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, PinterestAnd Youtube.
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