Excuse my absence. We moved into our new (permanent) apartment a month ago and have been occupied with settling in – never a simple affair, even less so in Belgium… for the following reasons:

  • In Belgium, an independent third party comes to conduct an “Etat des Lieux” before the new tenant moves in. This is apparently to ensure that any damage we do, we are held accountable for. In Canada, this would consist of a simple walk through of tenant and landlord together, perhaps ticking boxes on a sheet of a paper. In Belgium, because many folks are employed to do unnecessary tasks, there are people who work full time in this area. The day before we moved in, we met the landlord and the ‘surveyor’ at the apartment to check things out. The surveyor was equipped with a camera, a notepad, and a Dictaphone. He spent over an hour talking into his machine, making fastidious notes and taking pictures of everything. His impression of the apartment will apparently be typed up and sent to us in a formal (15-20 page) document some time before we move out.
  • The apartment has fourteen foot ceilings and came with no light fixtures, or curtains. And no ladder. We’re still waiting for the landlord to bring one. In the meantime, in order to hang curtains, David fashioned height-enhancers from dressers.
  • Appliances do not systematically come with a rented apartment. We’ve bought a fridge and a second-hand dryer and are now waiting for the arrival of a washing machine (model out of stock). Hopefully it will arrive before the baby.
  • Though it was infinitely helpful to have a moving service pack up, ship and unpack all our belongings, a few annoyances ensued. Damage to a couple small articles necessitated dealing with the insurance company, which involved filling out a myriad of paperwork, including a photocopy of a letter written to the ship company (that’s right, the boat) to let them know that we were filing a claim. We’ll see what comes of the €250 we’ve asked for. Also, the all-male unpackers, bless them, they tried, unpacked everything so randomly that I’m still reorganizing.
  • The 14 ft spiral staircase to the second floor is a bit impractical in the 8th month of pregnancy.
  • Being in the 8th month, bending, lifting and climbing on chairs – regular aspects of moving in – are no easy matter and are best avoided. David has thus been presented with a list of tasks on re-entry every evening. We’re getting there.
  • The apartment is twice the size of our last place and thus requires time and money spent to fill it. This will have to happen slowly.
  • There is no Canadian Tire here.

But one month later, everything is coming together. And the place is great. It’s the first and second floor of a converted town house in a fairly lively district of Brussels. Original floors remain, as do the fireplaces (the living room one is still functioning), and we have our own private garden (a rarity it seems). It still needs work, but for now, we’re just happy to be settled into a place that will be ours for sometime to come.

If you’re interested, here’s a little video we made of the place.