The apartment is in a quieter mostly residential neighborhood with some nice Cafes/Bars and boutique shops around. In fact one of the best Tapas restaurants that we visited on our entire trip (covering Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona) was just around the corner from the apartment.
The nearest metro/train stop is about 7-8 min walk and same for the major bus stops, so if you're looking to spend a lot of time around the typical tourist neighborhoods (Las Ramblas, Gothic Quarter etc.) you will have to plan for about 20 mins travel time. Overall we found the apartment quite comfortable and reasonably well appointed and Manuel and Lucia were good hosts with a timely check-in process and good explanation of how to get around Barcelona for first time visitors such as us.