House Wanted

We're currently in the market for a house in the Northern Virginia area, and we've been looking for quite a while. We have some criteria that, at first blush, might not seem so difficult to meet, but, when taken in aggregate, seem to be impossible. The majority of homes in the area are Colonial in style, with 4 bedrooms, formal living and dining rooms and little room between the home and the neighbor. All of these things are negatives that we have to work against as we look at houses.

As you drive up to the house, you should see a stone or bright-colored brick front home, with a 2 car garage that you enter to the side of the home. The driveway should continue on in a circle around in front of the home. A courtyard driveway to the front of the house (side loaded) is also desirable.

When you walk in, there should be a foyer with a presentable staircase (winding would be best) and upstairs wood railing to look down onto the foyer. A large chandelier should hang in the arched window above the front door.

The hallway to the kitchen and family room should be wide and open. The home should never feel claustrophobic.

We would like a home that has a huge master bedroom with a sitting area between the hallway and the bedroom. A large walk-in closet should also be present, with room enough for a sitting bench or dresser table in the middle of the closet. The bathroom needs to have a large enough shower for a grown man to be able to towel off in (dual-opposing-shower heads preferred).

There should be a library/study off of the family room, with room for a minimum of a desk and 5 bookcases, with room to walk around.

Update: We've found the home - this was a draft rant that I never published..and my thoughts here are incomplete.  The rant was to continue on to discuss the lack of need for formal living and dining areas and how the flow of life has changed from the 1800s to today and how modern architecture seems unable to keep up with our changing lifestyles.  Of course, now that the passion has worn off - less important to rant on about it all.