Jakiano

Dear people,<BR>I have booked an apartment for a short stay in Barcelona. There are two of us sharing, and it consists of a bedroom, a small kitchen, a living room and a bathroom. When I enquired as to the size of the room &quot;as a whole&quot;, I was informed that it would be about 45 square metres. Being british, I am fully aware of the metric system and how it works, but I find it difficult to conceive of measurement in such a way, as to imagine, how the room would look accurately, after hypothesising as to its possible lengths and widths etc. If anyone has any idea of whether, for a budget apartment, with all these different rooms, this is an &quot;acceptable&quot; size, or can help in forming a useful analogy for something of roughly this size (45m2), using perhaps a particular place (eg the main living area in the sitcom &quot;friends), a location of universal homogeneity (eg a basketball court), a physical property that that has an particular, objective mass (eg...well...to be honest, I can't really think of one!)or something else,I would much appreciate it.<BR>Thanks

ira

Hi<BR> Think of it as a 10x10 ft kitchen, a 12x12 bedroom, a 12x15 living room and a 5x5 bathroom.<BR><BR> Not spacious, but not badly cramped.

baldrick

well, let's see,<BR>45 m2, 9 x 5 m2, appr. 10 x 5.5 sq.yrds.<BR><BR>5m2 x 9 m2, would be approximately 4 parking spots next to each other, 5m profound, 2.25 m large... ok?<BR><BR>It's not much, but it'll do, especially as you live mainly outdoor in barcelona.<BR>It will probably have a kitchen in some kind of niche with a living/dining all-in-one room, a bedroom of 12 - 14 m2 and a bathroom. Do you have a terrace?<BR><BR>Seems an acceptable size for a budget appartment.<BR>

Jakiano

Thanks Ira, these sound about right, but from what i hear the kitchen is &quot;small&quot; and thus, according to your examples, this would result in a decrease of its area and an increase in the others a little. I still, admittedly, and not to disregard your comment in any way, find the idea of imagining these measurements without the help of analogy quite difficult.

Jakiano

Thanks Baldrick<BR>i'm picturing it now, and it does seem quite small. There is, what has been described as a &quot;small&quot; balcony/terrace,if that makes a psychological difference.<BR>My main issue is really whether or not getting an apartment is a good idea; we're only there for a few days. Maybe a smaller hotel room would feel bigger because it would be less cramped. Not sure.

Anonymous

45 square meters (i.e., about 450 square feet) is indeed about the size of the main living area in the &quot;friends&quot; set.<BR><BR>Another strategy that might help is for you to measure a couple of rooms in your own home and compare them to those that Ira gave.<BR><BR>If the prices are comparable, I personally would select the small apt over a hotel room. A kitchen and balcony are great conveniences, even if they are small, and having separate living and bedrooms can help keep the peace when 2 people travel together, especially if they tend to keep different hours (e.g., an early bird can get up and not disturb the other person).<BR><BR>Hotel rooms, especially European ones, are rarely anything approaching 45m2 and indeed might turn out to be just the size of the apartment bedroom!

sheila

I hugely sympathise. I've just been involved in buying a house in france and some ads have only got this stupid information. No room numbers, no room sizes, nothing!! But they always tell you if there's a fireplace

mpprh

Hi<BR><BR><BR>45m2 is close to 495 sq ft.<BR>so a room 25ft x 20ft is about the same.<BR>Its a reasonable size for 2 people.<BR><BR>Most studios are 20 - 25m2.<BR>4 bed villas start at 120 m2.<BR><BR>Peter<BR>http://tlp.netfirms.com/

Jakiano

Thanks for all your help<BR>I think i'll stick with the apartment now.<BR>

bashful

One more addition to this thread - we stayed in an apartment in Tuscany a few years ago - it was 40 sq. mtrs.<BR>We found it quite acceptable and we were there for a week. It was small, mind you but had a little patio and a pool.<BR>The kitchen also was the living room (!) with a small couch, t.v. (never on) on a table, kitchen table and 4 chairs. That was about it! The bathroom was also very small but the bedroom was fairly large. All in all, we found that we used it to sleep, prepare simple meals, shower - that was about it. We sat on our patio or by the pool. It was a reasonable price which was a factor for us. I would recommend it-small size and all!

Heyblondie

My whole apartment (for one person) is 545 square feet, so yours would be close to that size. It will be a little cramped for two people, but still doable - especially if you don't spend much time in the apartment.

Jakiano

Thanks for all the posts in response.<BR>It seems like 45 m2 will be fine.<BR>I'd be less sceptical if I knew more about the property, but I can't find out about it anywhere. Its called Apartamentos Mur Mar. I've made a few posts in the last few days, but no &quot;fodorites&quot; have been able to help me. The only thing I've read about it h has been a post made some time ago by Margo, and a v.short description on another website. I've only found 1 photo, and sadly, it looks like multi-storey car park; and not even a semi-attractive one at that.

JMAK

Dear Jakiano,<BR><BR>it might be that in ENgland people live in huge apartments but I would think in bigger cities such as London, they need to survive with a little less space. I live in Finland, and in larger cities even here where we have loads of space per person in the country, you don't have the luxury to live in thousands and thousands of squarefeet (unless you're rich and then I guess you would not be looking for a budget apartment <BR>I share a 56 m2 apartment with my husband and we don't feel cramped and in this we live permanently. This is quite customary in Finland for downtown apartments. We have an eat-in kitchen with all appliances, a livingroom with a large corner model couch, bookself, two chest of drawers, tv and room to walk through quite nicely. We have a very large bedroom with two large garderobs and a king size bed, a chest of drawers and couple of chairs plus of course a bathroom and a little hall. We like open space so of course it would be nice to have more space but feeling cramped mainly has to do with how much stuff you have in your apartment. SO since you will be just staying a few days in this apartment, you will likely be able to survive quite comfortably in 45 m2 for a few days without all the stuff you have at home. So I don't think you need to worry... or if you find it too small try to cheer up by thinking of all us people living downtown in larger cities with just a middleclass income and having to live in a place like that all the time...<BR><BR><BR>

mpprh

Hi<BR><BR>just to add a point.<BR><BR>If you'll be in Barcelona between May &amp; October a terrace or balcony would be very pleasant.<BR><BR>House sizes vary for many reasons. But I've noticed it varies by country and could be a climate thing.<BR>Sweden has large living and storage areas, but smaller bedrooms than UK. Mediterranean areas have smaller living areas, but larger terraces.<BR><BR>Peter<BR>http://tlp.netfirms.com/<BR>

SiobhanP

It should not be any different from a typical 1 bed apt in London. My apt in Dublin is 45 Sq Meters. 2 of us live there and I think its bigger than other places I have seen. You should have a double bed room, small bathroom with tub, living room and stand in kitchen. I think it's fine and pretty average for a city 1 bed apt.

EnglishOne

JMAK - please don't go thinking that English people live in huge buildings! You haven't seen my house - and it's fairly typical of many houses in the South East. Its about the size of a rabbit hutch... but the mortgate and the costs of living here is astronomical!! Most of one's salary tends to go on living accommodation, so we are not rich! (the rest of my salary goes on travelling...!!) The problem IMO, is overcrowding..too many people in such a small country. Maybe I should emigrate! ;O)

EnglishOne

sorry (typo) - I meant *Mortgage*

busterla

Just a side comment on the apartment in &quot;Friends&quot;, which is a wildly unrealistically vast apartment for anyone in Manhattan, let alone some struggling 20-somethings. My best guess is that it is approximately 750 square feet or about 80m2 (if I'm doing my conversions properly) not including the terrace. <BR><BR>On the open market in NY I would assume that such an apartment would rent for about $4,000 to $5,000 a month. But then again, on top of a huge apartment, you get a building and neighborhood where there only seem to be white people, where no one is ever mugged and where no one ever seems to have to go to work by a certain time. So it may be worth it.