Considering building a home...questions.

My wife and I live in Tennessee and just sold our house (going through the inspection today). We'll be moving back to New Orleans mid-November. One of the things we are considering is building a home.

We're 37/38 years old. We both have good jobs, no kids and no plans of ever having kids. Our current house is just under 3K square feet and it's just a waste of space for us. We would like something around 2K square feet but with some of the luxuries of a bigger house. An incredible kitchen and really nice master suite and overall open floor plan. The rest of the house isn't as important.

The problem is most houses I see in New Orleans at that size don't have those features. Small master bathrooms and kitchens. Everything closed off.

Here's what we're looking for:
-2K square feet (a little more or a little less is fine).

-One "great room" for the kitchen and den. I've seen plans where you have a large rectangular type of room. On one short wall is the stove and cabinets. Then there's an island/bar that separates the kitchen from the rest of the room. On the far side you would have the TV, fireplace and whatever to make up the living room. Nice windows looking out into the backyard.

-Average sized master bedroom...or even smaller.

-Huge master bathroom. Two person shower wrapped behind a tub. Two separate vanities. Two walk in closets.

-Good to high end appliances/fixtures for the kitchen and bath.

-The rest of the house isn't as important. Two spare bedrooms (one I could use as a small media room and the other a guest room). Dining room would be for resale value only. 2 total baths including the master.

-Location is a big unknown factor. We're pretty open as long as it's a decent neighborhood. Metairie or Jefferson preferable. Lakeview is probably too expensive. Kenner/Harahan/River Ridge is a possibility and about the furthest we would move away. Northshore and Destrehan are nice but too far for us.

Questions:
-Is a $250k budget reasonable? We can spend more, but we would rather not. I think we could make this work and get most of what we want. From what I can see the cost of the land is going to be somewhere between $50-$80K. That leaves $170 or so for the house.

-The other question is are we screwing ourselves if we ever want to sell? Is this too personalized for the size? Our plan is to live here forever, but things happen. Knowing that, I don't care if it's a harder sell...but more concerned if it's an impossible sell. Planning on living here for 20, 30 or more years means I don't care about making the smartest financial decision. I just don't want to make a horrible decision.