A New House?

Well we have been dabbling in looking for a new larger house here in Tucson. There are some pretty good deals out there with all of the short sales & foreclosures around. The difficult thing is to find a house that;
1) Is an okay commute time to Andy's work (less than 45min)
2) Is large enough for a rapidly growing family with lots of stuff/hobbies
3) Has nice enough ammenities for the money being spent
4) Is on a nice lot/location with views, space and a kid friendly yard
5) Is in a good school district

Pretty much we are asking for a miracle. But if we are dropping a lot of dough on a house that we plan on spending "forever" in, then we had better be happy with our purchase, right?

Some things we would love,
1) 5 bedrooms or 4 bedrooms with a den/office.
2) one level and no interior steps (for Lincoln's sake)
3) over 2700 sq ft
4) on an acre or more
5) not in a hole (neighbors can't see into the backyard)
6) has a lounge pool (or a pool can be built)
7) has a "shop" or enough land where a shop can be added
8) has a guest house/casita for long term visitors or a place where one can be added
9) open floor plan, living room/dining room/kitchen
10) tall ceilings
11) not too many improvements/cosmetic changes need to be made (although you all know how much we love our DIY home improvement projects)

After going to open houses for the past 3 weekends, and heading out with a realtor a couple of times...our currect favorite home is this one...



Isn't it pretty?? ;)

It comes the closest to what we want, so far. Large, spacious bedrooms, lots of storage options and bonus rooms, nice counters/cabinets/bathroom and flooring. BUT, it does not have a shop, a casita, the lvrm/dnrm/kit set up is not perfect, and the backyard as it is, is small and needs several changes (removing prickly pear, adding pool, adding kid area), and the lvrm needs larger windows and a few other cosmetic changes to suit our style. A couple of things that are good, we think...is it is a foreclosure home, so we might be able to get a great deal. The lot next door is empty, and if the owner is willing (big if, as we have not looking into this at all) we would consider buying that to build Andy's shop & possibly a guest house. So there are things that we like and things that we don't like. We are just trying to decide if we could changes these things, and at what price we would be willing to try to make this house perfect.

But, we just started our search, and we know there are many other homes in Tucson that may fit our needs even better. So we are keeping an open mind for now. In the meantime, we dream... :)