A few weeks ago, I wrote of the autumn expat migration. Since then, Andrew and I have been contemplating a migration of our own.

It was about this time, three years ago, that Andrew and I decided to make our dream of living in Europe a reality. We were scrambling to get paperwork done, sell our house and our possessions and find a temporary place to live in Amsterdam before our final move to Belgium.

Town Mouse, Country Mouse

We had no idea what area we wanted to live in. We had no sense of what the different communities were like. In fact we had only visited Brussels for one long weekend, a year before we moved there. We decided to hire a relocation expert to help us out.

At the time, we knew what we wanted: a detached house with a big enough yard for our Saint Bernard and room enough inside for Andrew, myself and our four cats.

We had one weekend to house hunt. Our relocation expert showed us six houses. None of them exactly fit the bill. As a last resort she showed us a row house in a small village. It was the best of what we had seen and we decided to take it.

Fast forward two and a half years and here we are, still in Everberg. While we still like our house and the area we live, I know now that I would not have chosen it if I had been able to spend some time in Belgium before settling permanently. Also, after living in Europe for a while now, we’ve discovered that our needs and desires in a place to live have changed.

Since our arrival, our Saint Bernard has passed away, negating the need for our large garden. We’ve also come to the conclusion that we both hate yard work. Although I love to grow things in pots on my balcony, my actual flower garden is seriously neglected.

We’ve also found that our Canadian concept of space has changed after living in Belgium. For just two people, the extra space in our house now seems wasted even though our larger, Canadian home seemed crowed and small, at the time.

Brussels Metro

But our biggest reason to consider moving is convenience. Because I don’t drive in Belgium, my freedom to come and go has been limited by the nearly non-existent public transportation by our house. Andrew would also like the flexibility to not have to drive everywhere, all the time.

So, as a solution, we’re considering moving into the Brussels city limits. Currently, neither of us has a desire to live in the city centre. We’re thinking that an apartment with a large balcony, in one of the out-lying communes, that has a metro station would be our current ideal.

This time however, we are taking it very slowly. We’re investigating the neighbourhoods that we are interested in – taking the time to visit them at different times of the day. We are also checking out the services and public transportation in these areas. Most of all, we are making a list of our needs and wants in a future home, with the intention of sticking to it as much as possible.

I find it funny that this list is so drastically different from the list we made when we arrived in Belgium. Neither of us would have entertained the idea of living in Brussels at that time, and after the purchase of our first Canadian house, we swore we were done with apartment living.

I see now though that it is impossible to predict how your circumstances, tastes and needs change over time. Maybe this move won’t happen, or maybe the place we end up will be totally different then what I picture now. For the time being I’m just keeping my eyes open and waiting for the right property to say ‘Welcome home.’

26 October 2007

Alison Cornford Matheson

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