House Hunting season...

Time has come to look for a property and thankfully, there are more available now than what there used to be a year ago in Dublin. Nevertheless it is still very expensive but here is one of the reasons we are going to rent and not buy: The prices of 2 bedroom apartments in Dublin 2 and Dublin 4 range from 310KE (only a handful below 420K) to above 3 million euros!!!
And so we started visiting... A Googler advertised a 2 bedroom house to rent and we visited it on Tuesday evening. It was nice but we were not convinced. On Wednesday, C. from C.R. took us on a property hunting day (part of the Google relocation package). She picked us up at 9:45 and we visited 11 properties, then had lunch and visited another 2. We had a 14th property to see but decided to call it a day. From the 13 properties we saw, I could see myself living in 10 of them so it was nice to be able to chose. In the end, S and I narrowed it down to 2 properties. One very spacious but less appealing apartment which was in a nicer area but less well located for commuting (30mins from Google but closer to shops) and the other one much brighter and closer to Google (<10mins). In the end, we opted for the very first property we visited. It caught our eyes as soon as we entered the living room. It wasn't especially spacious but of reasonable size and has 2 of the 4 living room walls almost completely covered in full length windows (Photos to come once we'll have moved in). And since the apartment is a penthouse (4th floor), it is *very* bright. Of course it is very expensive because Dublin is but we managed to negotiate 100E/m off the price thanks to the relation between C. and the agency whom we also know from our temporary accommodation. We had confirmation today that the apartment is ours although we haven't signed anything yet so Youpiiii! In the other apartments we visited, there were only 2 which were cheaper, they were both 1 bedroom, both small and not too appealing. We also visited a 1 bedroom apartment at 1600E/m non-negotiable so I think we got a pretty good deal.
We can't wait to move in but before this can happen, there will be a trip to Austria including one day of skiing...