mrubio - got your email and replied.

As to the hot water - that is actually not all that uncommon in Europe, especially in older properties and when putting more people in a place than would usually live there. My guess is the owner had previous complaints from folks not accustomed to the way things are done there. To be honest, we yanks are a bit spoiled by energy prices and/or environmental consciousness low enough that we get away with relatively inefficient hot water heating systems.