Mission Accomplished

After 32 hours of travel time, and being in Brussels a total of 46 hours we found our home for the next two years!  It was a whirlwind trip, but very fruitful as we looked at almost 20 houses in a day and a half and settled on one that seems to fit the needs of our family very well.  The house has enough space for a small office area on the first floor and an extra room that will serve as a school room if we continue to home school, which is our current plan. 

Our home is located in the south east area of Brussels in a commune called Woluwe St. Pierre.  We are only two streets over from a large Sports Plex where the children will hopefully be involved in swimming and several other activities.  The house is less than 3 miles from Jason's work, and very close to an area called Place Dumon where there is an outdoor market three times a week with fresh local produce and other items available.  We are excited to try out the outdoor market and I think it will be a great learning experience for the kids to try new fruits and veggies and also for me to learn how to prepare them!

Below are a few pictures of the house and we will share more once we arrive and get settled.

Here is the front of the house.  I guess it would be somewhat like a duplex here in the US.  The garage to the left will be ours and the bottom two windows on the left are for the living area and the top two are in the bedrooms.  The other garage on the right is for the house we are attached to.  It is beneficial to live in an attached home as it will help reduce heating costs, which can be very high.   

The kitchen is newly renovated and "fully equipped", which means an oven, microwave, stove and a fridge about the size of your college dorm fridge!  We will definitely need to purchase a second fridge and freezer for our family of 5!

The downstairs living area is open and very bright.  It is in an L shape and we will have our dining area, living room and a small office area for our desk, computer and paperwork.  Notice the light bulb hanging down near the sliding door...you have to buy your own light fixtures.  You move in with wires and light bulbs literaly hanging from the ceiling!

This is a view of the back yard from the sliding doors shown in the picture above.  It is a good sized yard and has a nice deck if we'd like to eat outside some in the warmer temps. 

Here is one of the upstairs bathrooms.  All the bathrooms we saw were very modern.  This bathroom has a jacuzzi tub, which the kids are very excited about!

Finally, this is a view from the third floor bedroom.  It seems to be a very nice street and just a few streets down we will have the convenience of grocery shops, a bank and other every places we will need.  We are so thankful that we have now settled on a home and we can begin the planning of what we need to bring and what items we will need to find once we are there.