Four Hundred and Thirty Four Square Feet of Love

We are pretty well settled into the temporary apartment now, and have even started to establish a workday routine. We knew when we decided to come here that we would be making do with less space, and this apartment is definitely testing the limits of that theory. It's four hundred and thirty four square feet, and we are attempting to make use of every inch. We actually do feel that were it not for the cats, we could probably be pretty comfortable here. With the cats, however, somebody is always stepping on somebody.

The unit is well laid out for its size. It has a decent-sized bedroom, surprisingly reasonably sized bathroom, and a small kitchen which is open to a small living room.

The bedroom has a double bed, a dresser, and a built-in closet. We have managed to fill every drawer and hanger quite easily. I do feel like it's enough space, though just enough. The bed is technically longer than I am tall, but more often than not I do find my feet hanging off. Such is the life of a tall person. The real challenge comes when both cats decide they want to be on the bed. They tend to prefer Mary's side, and when they are both there it leaves an absurdly small amount of room for her. Eventually they take the hint with all the kicking and make there way elsewhere.

The living room has a small couch, coffee table, and television. The TV has pretty limited choices, which is actually fine. We have been spending our time figuring out the new realities, so we're not wanting for things to do.

The kitchen is smallish, but well laid out and very modern. Using it is like cooking in a spaceship. All of the appliances use icons instead of words. This makes sense in Europe, since many languages need to be supported, but also makes doing anything in the kitchen an adventure. We also have an induction range ("cooker" or "hob" in the local lingo) which can burn stuff in record time. We are gradually getting used to it, and have actually cooked several meals at home since we have been here. We have also successfully run the dishwasher, cooked a frozen pizza in the oven, and mostly successfully ran the washer/dryer combo (we think we may have washed twice, then dried once, but whatever works.)

We are definitely aiming for a bit more space in the longer-term rental, though time will tell how much more we get -- we want a fairly short commute, and budget hangs over all. We are checking out a few more neighborhoods this weekend, and then next week hope to start the hunt in earnest.