The house-hunt begins

JJ and I had our first meeting with a real estate agent yesterday. Our plan was to watch our income and expenses through December and January to get a better idea of what we could afford, before starting the search in late January or February.

But we've been idly looking at houses online and by driving around, of course, and we found one that looked so promising that we decided to move the timeline up and view the house immediately.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the house didn't live up to what we'd hoped. The neighborhood is great, and I'd love to live there. The yard is pretty nice, but most of the backyard is eaten up by a large lanai and pool. The interior is really the problem. It's very much an entertaining house, with the dining room, living room, and "party room" broken up. The party room takes up the back of the house, and has a wet bar with tap and beer lamp for over a pool table. Upstairs is cramped, and the second and third bedrooms are pretty small.

It's nice to have a starting point, though, a house to compare other houses to. And now that we've met with Maria, our agent, she can start pointing us in the direction of other possibilities. We're in no real rush, so we can take our time, watch the market, and find just the right place.