When we came back to Ireland, we needed to find a place to live. It turned out not to be as easy as we expected, because there is a shortage of supply in the Dublin rental market at the moment, and so we were competing with a lot of other potential renters for a limited supply of decent rental properties. In one case, the letting agent suggested that we would improve our chances of securing the property by entering into a bidding war, offering a higher rent than the asking price.

We declined.

While we succeeded in finding a place that met our needs, I didn’t have high hopes for it. It didn’t even have a garden, just wooden decking. For the first few days after we moved in, it was hard to think of it as “home”. After weeks of disruption since we left our home in Osaka, it felt like just another temporary place to lay our heads.

But to my surprise, I quickly came to like it. A lot.

Although it’s a relatively small house, its open-plan layout means that it feels comfortably spacious, and the modern design brings in a lot of light. I also like the way you can throw open the doors to the outside, making the decked area feel like an extension of the house in fine weather.

And we have been making the most of it. In the last couple of weeks we’ve been eating outdoors regularly, and had barbecues 5 or 6 times at least.

However, it is only our temporary home, while we search for a house to buy. And that means spending our evenings searching for suitable houses on myhome.ie and our Saturday mornings attending public viewings.