German houses

I think we have been in more private homes in Germany this visit than any previous one.  This is not a tour of all varieties of German living arrangements (these people are all but one academics, from grad students to very senior professors, so that might lead to some biases).  Sorry, no photos, as I wasn't thinking about doing a post like this when I visited, and also, it's sort of rude to visit someone's house and start taking pictures to show Americans who don't know about Germany.

Individual houses: two different people living in those.  Both were in what I would consider a suburb, though I'm not sure whether they technically met that definition. One was single story; the other two story.  The kitchens (here and everywhere) tend to be small by our standards, but the houses overall were of reasonable size (if you aren't looking for a McMansion).  They have very small yards; I didn't see any lawn, but there were lots of nice trees and flowers and patios for sitting at.  No air conditioning, the walls are of thick stone, and the most insulated windows you have ever seen ("The Germans are very proud of their windows").

Multi-story apartments: Three different instances of this.  Two of them were in buildings where most apartments were single floor, but the top floor had a two level apartment with a roof garden as a third level.  One was in an old building with no elevator (and on the 5th and 6th floors), but the other was a quite new building with underground parking and a building elevator.  Both had circular staircases going to the roof, I assume to save space.  Very spacious, but obviously the roof gardens, which were relatively large, were the only outdoor space.  Fantastic views.  The third one was on the ground floor (and one floor up), with the rest of the apartments in the building being single story.  This one was more spacious, even had a sort of "man-cave"/bonus room. They had a small fenced patio in front. All three of these apartments were owned by the residents.  Two of them were within a large city, and one was in a small suburb.

Single-story apartment: This was a two bedroom place (really one bedroom with office, but since German homes seldom have built in closets, an office is indistinguishable from a bedroom,until it is furnished).  The rooms were nice sized, and the view was killer.  But no outdoor space -- just a tiny terrace, barely big enough to sit at.  I'm pretty sure this place was rented.

I think all Americans would have been taken aback by the small yards (unless their experience was downtown New York City, Chicago, Boston or the like).  The houses would have seemed average to small by our standards, though I thought the owners felt they had plenty of room, and the multistory apartments would be similar.  The single story apartment would be very similar to a two bedroom apartment anywhere in the US.