Our Next House Must-Have List

We moved into our current house three years ago, and have since been on a reno spree until we started to feel a bit "home reno fatigue". It's only until after we've lived in the house for a while did we realize what we are still after for a true dream home. Don't get me wrong, our current house is great and comes very close to what we thought "this was it":

• it has been renovated from top to bottom;
• it's in an awesome neighbourhood with decent schools (so much so that we constantly have agents and people ring our doorbell asking if we are selling our house...speaking of which, perhaps I should put up that "No Soliciting" sign :-));
• the house is almost 5,000 sq ft, more than ample for a couple without kids.

However, of late I gradually come to the realization that this isn't our dream house, and this isn't IT. Though we are not moving for another couple of years, I've started to dream up my next house's must-have list:

1. It has to be in a mature neighbourhood, preferably one of these three: York Mills, Rosedale and Leaside.
2. It needs to have a large or deep and treed yard with privacy. One of the downsides of living in a new subdivision is that the streetscape is so bare, and the backyard is typically small. Baby trees will take years to grow to provide shade.
3. Ideally it has a symmetrical facade. A house with front door tucked on one side of the house just doesn't cut it for me any more.
4. It has at least two smaller built-in convention ovens. I realize how much I love to bake to decompress, and the single giant convention oven I have right now not only takes long to preheat but is also not energy-efficient if I only want to bake a loaf of cake.
5. It should have gas stove or induction cooktop. Do you know how many seconds an induction cooktop takes to boil a full pot of water? 30 seconds!
6. On top of all the above, though it can have less square footage, our next house should also have all bells and whistles we already have in our current house.

Something like this will be perfect for me, thanks very much. :-)

Do you think this type of house exists? Is this too tall an order? Does the "love it or list it" ever come across your mind amidst your home renos? Are you still in search of your dream home?