There is no such thing as a perfect home. I personally think it is just want you need — what you need that you can afford.
We spend our lives with the grand perfect home sketched in our minds and we spend our working years trying to achieve just that. Only to find out achieving dreams are difficult. Then you end up renting a studio-type apartment all your working years.
Whoever said that achieving your dreams starts with a single step didn't say it clear that that 'single step' is making a decision. If you want to own a house someday (hopefully by the time you retire!), then make that decision while you are in the early phase of your professional life. Or if you already have one kid for example, at that time. Then just look for a two-bedroom house – one for you and your husband, the other one for your child. Your child will eventually move out by the time he is 18 to go to college (or be on his own) anyway, right?
What's been stopping each and everyone of us from taking that 'single step' into owning our home is that eternal dream of a beautiful grand 5-bedroom mansion with a spawning lawn and huge backyard with the wooden swing or kidney pool. Zap the thought right out of your head and come back to earth, because that's not gonna happen if you cannot afford it.
So what if it takes you 15-20 years to fully pay a low-cost home? That's what you can afford right? Shrinking the term to 5-10 years will put a huge dent on your daily living expenses, so that's still not going to work. If a low-cost house that you have to pay for the next 20 years is what you can afford, I honestly think that's your perfect home.