House Dreamin'

As husband and I start the process of looking for a home to buy, our Realtor friend suggested that we come up with a list of things that we would like to have in our future home.  I should mention that since we live in millionairesville, single family homes (aka "a house") START at around $750,000.  Yikes!  We will be looking more for a condo/duplex and therefore can't be quite as picky. 

Here is what we have come up with so far:
- room to grow (ie not a 1 bedroom)
- little to no HOA ("Home Owners Association" for those of you lucky enough to not know what that is)
- wood burning fireplace for the days with negative temperatures - and also for smores inside the house of course
- garage
- some sort of yard/open space adjacent to our home/condo/hole in the wall
- 2 or less shared walls (right now we have 3 = noisy!)
- space for a table to eat at
- washer/dryer hook up

I know to a lot of people throughout the country some of those things on the list might look a little silly or like "givens" but around here you would be surprised at what you take for granted is already in a home.  I'm a little worried though.  Our list is a little sad.  We don't want to be too picky but I sort of feel like for such a big purchase we ought to have a bit more of an opinion. I'm curious to know, for those current homeowners out there, what are some things that you wish that you had looked for in a home? Any advice you could give to a couple of first time home buyers would be greatly appreciated!

{Image via Atlas Signs}