Hunting Houses: The Wish List

This past weekend Chris and I met our realtor Iris for our first house hunting experience!  The excitement kept me awake Saturday morning as I pulled out my phone and went through the listing pictures again at 3 in the morning.  Let's just say Saturday at 4pm couldn't come soon enough! (Chris had to work, so our showings were scheduled for the early evening).

But before I get to the fun, let's start at the beginning - the wish list.

As first time home buyers, our wish list included everything that we could think of for our future house: 

- 4 Bedrooms

- 2.5 Baths

- 2 story

- 2,000+ square feet

- Garage in front 

- Master down

- Master bath with dual sinks & walk in closet

- Decent sized kitchen

- Breakfast nook

- Open layout

- Dining room

- Game Room

- Space for Office (either a Study or a Formal Living room or 5th bedroom that could be used as home office)

- Decent sized back yard

- Mainly Brick house (which is the norm here in Texas)

- Open Stairs

- Vaulted ceiling in living room

- Good school district

- Nice neighborhood

- Good curb appeal

Whew, what a list! Knowing what our budget was, we knew we would not be able to get everything and we were ok with that.  We did have some must haves (mainly the first 7 listed above) that set up the basic criteria for Iris.  The garage in front was one of the interesting ones.  When interviewing realtors, they always asked why we wanted the garage in front.  The answer was simple:

Chris' extended cab F150 (which is about 19.5 feet long) is not the easiest thing to maneuver in tight alleyways.  For those readers that are not familiar with alleyways (I wasn't until we moved to Texas), some builders plan neighborhoods with alleys/garages in the back of the house.    

So with open minds, and a negotiable wish list in our heads, we were off to check out our first set of houses!!

What are some aspects of a home that are or were on your wish list?