Home Shopping Woes

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that Derek and I were starting our home owning journey. We're only a few weeks in and already it's been a bumpy ride. We both know what we want in a home, the only problem right now is that we can't exactly afford what we want. I really wanted to come to my blog today with good news, saying that we had a really great experience or we actually found a home we wanted to buy. 
In the beginning, Derek was convinced we could buy our "forever" home and completely forego the whole "starter" home process. I had my doubts, but I continued to look at homes in our price range that fell in to the category of "what we wanted." The problem with that was, "what we wanted" and "what we could afford" were definitely two very different things. We found a few homes that met almost all of our criteria: over x amount of square feet, x amount of land, open floor plans, updated kitchen, a large storage option (barn/garage), and neighbors you couldn't reach with your broomstick.
Saturday we spent 4+ hours with our realtor looking at these homes that "met" our criteria, but nothing stood out. Nothing that screamed "home" for us. 
After we were done looking at houses, Derek and I had lunch. We talked, we argued, we compromised. We decided that buying our "forever" home was not an option right now, being that anything that fell in our price range just didn't measure up. 
So now we have a totally different list of criteria (I feel sorry for our realtor). We've done a complete 180 and are now looking at "neighborhood" houses. Houses with floor plans called The Diane and The Ashley. Houses who's back yard isn't big enough to play wiffleball in and who's "storage options" are limited to the attached single car garage. Cookie cutter homes. 
I'm not trying to put down anyone that lives in a neighborhood like the one I'm talking about, I really don't think there's anything wrong with Suburb-style homes and neighborhoods, I just know they aren't for me. I wasn't raised in a home like that and it isn't the kind of home I want to spend the rest of my life in. But I'm willing to settle, and willing to compromise - for now - because I know not everyone can get what they want when they want it. I'm smart enough to know that not many 23-year-olds are in the position to be a homeowner and I consider myself very fortunate.
I am not expecting to find our dream home the next time we go look, and maybe not even the next time. I am looking forward to the next few months of looking at possible homes with Derek and hopefully finding one that "speaks" to us. (Lord knows I'm ready for a place of my own.)
Did you have a hard time finding your "perfect house?"