That's a great story, OP. Glad to hear you avoided the trap. I think the emphasis on storage for stuff we don't need is silly, too.
I love watching some of the HGTV shows (we don't have cable so I grab episodes here and there) but a steady diet of it is bad. For those shows to entertain me the properties have to be interesting, and that, to me, almost always means "old." One series of shows had young couples buying new low end builder houses and I was totally bored but I DID learn that double sinks are de rigueur even in track house land. Blech.
My friend has rescued a nice Victorian rowhouse with real plaster on the walls and crown molding and 9 feet ceilings in the basement with brick arches, really a nice rowhouse, and yet, she doesn't have a closet in her bedroom. There is a huge closet up the stairs and she is accustomed to using it, but our real estate agent friend says she needs a closet in the bedroom. Yet, think of the dozens of people who have lived in that house with no closet. This house would not pass muster on "Buying Houses with Crap You don't Need" on HGTV.