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Kim thought she liked the second house when we drove by a few weeks back, so I thought maybe this could turn out well. We heeded the warning not to pet the cat and took a walk around.

Very nice and open, a loft overlooking the living area, a Florida room, but a weird first-floor master bedroom. The closet door jumped the track when I opened it, and then I couldn’t fix it. I figured I should leave it before I broke it any more. We took a look in the master bathroom and then headed upstairs, with Warren a few steps behind us.

Kim noticed a door — it looked like a closet — just to the side of the stairs, outside the bedroom. Just as she reached to open it, Warren was coming through the other way: it was the master bathroom’s other door.

After a walk around upstairs, we tried to do the math: one bedroom downstairs plus one bedroom upstairs does not equal 3 bedrooms. Liars.

Again, nice house but a little quirky. Even if they find the 3rd bathroom, we probably won’t be back

After Warren setup our personalized home search webpage, we picked out a few homes to see. I thought the market was supposed to be slow, but apparently Richmond homebuyers didn’t get the memo. Out of the 6 houses we picked, 2 had sold and 1 was off the market — in just 4 days!

The first house we stopped by was nice. From the pictures we had seen online, it looked good, so I thought we were off to a solid start. Warren told us that it was vacant, so it might not be furnished. That would explain the soap and razor in the shower, junk in the sheds, and food in the refrigerator, fully furnished kids room. Vacant…right.

The house was very nice. Good paint colors, nicely decorated and furnished. The couple had lots of wedding and engagement pictures, and in one of the pictures, I noticed that a pastor friend of ours married the couple. Small world.

Then in another room, I saw the wedding program. Is it weird to know the people who own the house? I recognized the name, and then took a second glance at the wedding pictures. I guess it’s been 7 years since I had seen the guy, which is apparently enough time to get married, have a kid and already be selling your home. And for me not to recognize him.

Nice house, but not quite what we’re looking for. Check back soon for Part 2 of our first day.

Over the next few weeks and months (hopefully not any longer than that!), I want to take you on a journey with us that has already proved quite — how should I say — unique, humorous, odd. All of the above. We are first-time home buyers, or at least we’re trying to be.

We met our realtor, Warren, a few weeks back, and he is giving us a hand through this process. He set up our handy-dandy website with all the latest listings in our area, and we will hit the road to check out some of these homes with him.

How long will it take? Hopefully not too long, but you never know. We just hope we don’t end up like some of those extreme stories of Property Virgins or My First Home.

Check back this afternoon for Part I!