@cremebrulee yes, I can agree with you that living in the city itself has its pros, among which the most visible is lack of necessity to commute (everything you need is more or less close to where you live). I have lived in the city for my entire life, and I have experienced all of those pros. However, living in Vienna showed me that living a bit far from the city doesnt necessary mean "waste of time". First of all, it depends where you work. And usually, you will not change the place you live when changing your job. So, what is near in one point in time, does not necessary stay near

Also, at least here in Austria, people do log in when entering the train, and they do their job while commuting - and it all counts in their worktime (ofc this works with jobs where this is possible). And, depending of the size of the place you live in, it can turn out you actually need the city itself just for cultural events (and some specific needs - specific doctor, store, those things..) So, not only it is cheaper to live in smaller locations relatively close to the big city, but it turns out that you dont miss the city that much...
BTW, I agreed to the offer, now waiting for some administrative formalities before everything becomes official. After that, the show starts - temporary apartment while visiting apartments to rent (and keeping fingers crossed that the owner will pick us among other people) [and making final decision where to look , ofc, but that is the reason why I opened the topic

], and all the hassle with moving in ... Will go through all your advices again to try to narrow down the options at least a bit ...
Any advice is of course more than welcomed!
Thanks!