I want one. How do I get one?

You saw my rendition of my dream house last week and thought several things:

1. Wow! She's a true artist!
2. Why is her house wearing a hat?
3. How much time did she spend on that?
4. Gosh, I happen to know how she can get that house she was asking for.

My responses are:

1. Yeah, I am. Thanks.
2. Hats make things more fancy. I want my house to feel fancy and pretty.
3. Too much.
4. Do tell!

In case you didn't have the pleasure of viewing my masterpiece, here ya go.

Fancy house with a fancy hat thingy.

The short story is, I want a house so badly I can taste it. We like our apartment, but I'd love to able to have a yard, a porch, a little privacy.
Another closet.
A kitchen with more than 2 feet of functional counter space.

When I look around at people who are my age or younger who purchase or build houses, I genuinely want to know: how in the world do you do it?

I fancy myself quite the little savings ninja. We put money aside every month (and are blessed to be able to do so). But still, there's always something to be saving for or tackling that puts the brakes on saving for a down payment. And 20%? How does one possibly come up with 20%?

I'm seriously, genuinely asking you guys. If you purchased or built a house, what did you do? Did you find some special program that allowed you to put down less than the recommended 20%? Are you in massive debt because you really shouldn't have bought a home? Are you a baller and were able to just put aside a butt-ton of money? How do people who bring home what I presume to be roughly the same amount of money as Patrick and me manage to get houses?

How we roll.

We aren't making peanuts, but we aren't rolling in lettuce either. I'm not sure what food to use to symbolize, "More than we used to, but less than a lot." Acre peas, perhaps, because they're humble, but delicious. Yeah, we make acre peas kinda money.  

If you know some secret magic trick for making the bank people be like, "Oooh, you're so nice and I really like your shoes and your husband is so funny and smart looking in his glasses, so you only have to put down 1% and we'll help you build that cute house you've always dreamed of," please share in the comments.

Or even if you just know a regular, non-secret, non-magic bit of information that might help me start researching how to accomplish what feels like an impossible thing, tell me.

Or else I may keep drawing houses and making you look at them. Consider your options.