House hunting?

We moved into our home in 2010.  There are a few things that are not ideal.  We want more space to garden, and our home has trees on it's little lot.  We are DIY people and there is no garage or mud room... Which was not a problem until we had kids and now the extra bedrooms function as bedrooms not project spaces.  Our family also lives out of town so it would be lovely to have a space where they could stay when visiting (currently we have one, but when the kids need their own space it gets to be a bedroom again).  And we really want a big central kitchen, ours is an ok size and slightly isolated.

We have been looking on and off at houses, mostly the last three years, when I found a cash only house which was 12 acres with a pond.  My parents would love a project house (a farm would be ideal) and we would have paid our mortgage to them.  Any way that fell through, and I look every so often now.

I found one this weekend.  I drove by, and came home.  "I think I might have found our house."  We all drove by to take a look, and called the realtor on the sign.  There were so many things about this house that were wonderful and ideal.  But in the end it just was not right for us.  One of it's biggest flaws is that it is in an industrial area so there are no neighbors for our kids to play with.  

I did find myself wondering, if I am a minimalist why am I looking at a bigger house?  

I think the answer is while we enjoy our house, it does not quite work for us.  So I will keep looking.

This weekend I am planning on attending a co-housing meeting.  I will be very curious to see how it goes. I have been interested in the idea for a while, and clearly we are wanting something different than what we have.  I look forward to checking it out.