We started off the hunt a little closer to the Madrid city center with homes that were more of a row house style. Now don't get me wrong...these homes were huge compared to what we could get in the States. Our first house we looked at was a row house (so connected to other houses on both sides), but it had about 4,800 square feet of living space. Are you freakin kidding me? Even though there were houses on either side of us and we would share walls...would you even hear them in 4800 square feet? I don't know, but it was incredible. This particular one had been completely renovated inside and was absolutely gorgeous. The downfall was that though it had a huge pool, the yard was just a tiny strip and with two children this just would not fit our needs. We saw a gamut of homes ranging from old and dated to ultra modern and made completely of cement with state of the art appliances and amenities. After the first couple of days we quickly realized that with children and our lifestyle we did need a little bit more outside living than the city type places offered. So we headed to the burbs.
On a side note...we have a friend who is living in downtown Madrid. They actually have an apartment just next to the opera house in an incredible location. They look out one window on the Opera House and another window is the Royal Palace. Don't be fooled when you think of downtown like you would a downtown apartment in New York City. Their apartment is just over 3,000 square feet and has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms with a formal dining room, formal living space with a salon type area off of that. Tons of storage, built ins and 10 foot ceilings. Amazing...but again not a place we would be comfortable in with 2 smaller children and no yard space. Just an FYI.
Some interesting features in just about every home we looked at was the servant quarters. Most homes in Madrid have many floors or levels, they range from 2-4 floors and the basement area is never really factored in. The basement level is strictly for storage and service employees. The service quarters usually have a bedroom and bathroom connected, but are just at the lowest level of the home so the service isn't really seen. In many of the homes we looked at there were actually service employees not only living in the space, but cleaning and such when we were there. I thought it was very awkward, but the realtor explained that this was not only completely normal, but a pretty good deal for the worker. They had a place to live, free of charge, and got a small wage to go out on the town on their days off. All these homes would also have a service entrance, usually into the kitchen area.
The kitchens....this is a whole other issue. In the States we are so used to having huge kitchens that open up to the rest of the house so that we are always connected to our guests and the family areas. Well in Spain...this is definitely not the case. Hubby and I were discussing this issue and came to the realization that because the service or chiccas, mainly do the cooking, or that is how it used to be, the kitchens are a bit isolated and not open to anything. Again, so they wouldn't be seen. So strange to me, but a much different way of life here.
The bedrooms were pretty normal size. They were a bit smaller, but that is because instead of a closet per se they would have wardrobes. Now a wardrobe is sort of a closet/dresser in one. There was closet space to hang things, both short and long, and then built in drawers. This totally eliminates the need for dressers and that sort of bulky furniture. Brilliant if you ask me. We now just need to find space to store our dressers because we really won't need them. This would be a piece of advice that I would pass along to somebody coming here. The storage is just unreal. It seems like in every wall they put closets. They definitely embrace the season they are in. They use all the storage closets to put their winter clothes when it is summer and so on. Again...my sort of style.
The Spanish really focus on family and friends and use their homes to live like this. Bedrooms are not the size of living rooms and kitchens are not connected to the social areas, but they don't live in the kitchen or isolate themselves in their bedrooms. They live in their common areas and treasure their time with each other. Children are right in the middle of everything all the time, they are not shunned to a playroom or to their bedrooms. We look forward to embracing this in our new casa.
If you ever want to look at homes abroad...just for fun...a website called www.idealista.com is what we used in Madrid and it is just fun to see how other countries live.
Until next time....
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