Meanwhile we went and looked at a house today that has a very similar floor plan to what we want. It actually could work. It backs up to a pond (see photo), and I mean it's right up against it. That would be weird in a way -- there is only a few feet of grass between the back of the house and the water.
There are some other concerns as well. It only has a half basement, so there isn't nearly as much storage area as we'd like. The basement isn't walkout either. The master bedroom is kind of small, but workable. The kitchen is a bit smaller than we want, although it could work. So it's not perfect, but it really is very close overall, and it might be very affordable. Need to sleep on it and think about what to do.
