How I Read a Home: The First Things I Notice

You can learn a lot about a house in the first three seconds if you know what to look for.

Things like square footage, finishes, and counters are important in their own way. But the first things I notice are a bit different. When I walk into a house, everything arrives at once. The entrance, light, and flow of the movement inside the house.

It’s not a checklist, it’s a feeling.

It starts the moment I step inside. Does the space feel welcoming, or does it make you hesitate? Is there a sense of openness, or does the hallway stop at a wall? Those first three seconds after you walk in tell you more about a house than any listing ever could.

At the same time, I’m reading the light as it enters and how it moves through each room. Does the morning sun reach the kitchen, or does it miss it? Does the living room feel warm in the afternoon, or is it always a bit cool? Does the bedroom get the last gentle light before night? I pay attention to which way the windows face and, if possible, visit the house at different times of day. Morning and late afternoon reveal how a home really lives with light.

And woven through it all is the flow of how each room connects to the next. Does the kitchen invite you in, or does it feel closed off? Is the bedroom tucked away from the busy front door? A good house lets you move easily from morning coffee to evening rest. Whether you’re buying your first home in Marin County or moving within the Bay Area, these are the things worth paying attention to.

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This way of looking at homes has deep roots. In India, it is called Vastu Shastra. In China, it’s known as Feng Shui. Both are ancient traditions that help people understand how space, direction, and energy shape the feeling of a home.

My mother followed both traditions. She believed in them because she had seen for herself how some rooms felt right, and others did not. I watched her as I grew up, and over time, I started to practice her approach too. It made sense to me, and soon I noticed it everywhere. It became my way of understanding space.

Her way was intuitive. She would stand in the middle of a room and picture herself living there, where she would sit in the morning, what she would reach for, and how she would move through a normal day. She planned spaces by imagining herself in them. If her imagined days felt smooth, the room was working for her. If she kept running into obstacles, the room was pushing back. That was her test, and it was almost always right.

In 2014, my mom and I built our family home in Sikkim, India, with the help of my cousin, an architect, who gave us a full blueprint to start from. We then redesigned every detail together, following Vastu principles. One thing we knew from the start was that we wanted to eat outdoors. Breakfast in the morning under the open sky, and on weekends, long family brunches when my brother and sister came over. That’s why we placed the kitchen windows to open straight onto the front porch. We handed out the dishes with ease, set the table together, and sat looking east at the green hills rolling north toward the snowy peaks. Each room faced the view we wanted. Every window is placed on purpose, keeping the house consistently filled with fresh, crisp mountain air through good cross-ventilation.

When I work with people, I use simple language. The feeling of a house is what matters most, and that comes through on its own. As we walk through a house, I point out things like which way the entrance faces, where the stove is, how quiet the back bedroom feels, and where the stairs end. Soon, people start to notice these things themselves.

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Light

When the morning sun shines through the window and warms the floor, you notice it before you even think about it. That kind of light makes a house feel alive.

Light is the first language a house speaks.

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North-facing rooms are usually calm and steady, with soft light all day. They work well for offices, art, or sleeping. South-facing rooms get sunlight all day and feel especially lively in winter. East-facing rooms are best in the morning. West-facing rooms catch the golden evening light, though they can run warm on summer afternoons. When a house has rooms facing the right directions, it matches the rhythm of daily life.

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But not every house fits this pattern, and that is fine. Not all homes face east, and not every living room has south-facing windows. What matters most is how the house feels as it is, and how you can make the best of what it already offers. Every house has its strengths. Sometimes, they need someone to notice them.

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If a kitchen does not get morning light, you might avoid it at breakfast. The breakfast-facing bedroom without shade can get too hot in summer so that you may leave it early. A living room with only north light feels calm but not warm.

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Light by itself is not enough for me to recommend a house. But I have never seen anyone regret buying a home that has good light.

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The Entrance

Vastu is part of my roots and shaped my upbringing. Feng Shui complements it naturally and helps me bring balance to the spaces I look at. In Vastu, the front door is called the mouth of the house. In Feng Shui, it is where energy either comes in or is blocked. Both traditions agree: the entrance is where a home decides what it will give you.

At the entrance, I look for a clear path to the door. Does the doorway feel open or tight? When you step inside, is there a place for your eyes to rest, or do you see a wall, a bathroom, or stairs right away? Does the air feel fresh or still?

The entrance sets the mood for the whole house. People notice it, even if they do not realize it. I have seen buyers lose interest in a home within 30 seconds, often without knowing why. Most of the time, it is because of the entrance.

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Flow

The best houses flow naturally, just like the rhythm of a day.

You start your day in a quiet place. You walk to the kitchen through the morning light. Whether you have coffee, tea, or warm water with lemon and salt, you do it in a space that feels welcoming. As the day passes, you use different rooms as the sun moves across the sky. In the evening, you relax in a living room that feels cozy and private. The bedroom sits back from the street, tucked away from noise.

A house like this does not stand out at first. But after living there for a while, you notice you no longer feel tired in the afternoons. Your mornings feel calmer, and you sleep better than you have in years.

That is what I mean when I say a house holds you, and finding that feeling is what I’m truly looking for when I walk through a house with you.

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What this blog isn’t

This blog isn’t about finding the perfect house. Perfect houses don’t exist, and searching for one only leads to frustration.

Every home asks you to make a few compromises. Maybe the kitchen is in a spot you wouldn’t place it. The entrance meets a wall before it meets you. The bedroom lies closer to the street than you’d choose. Some of these quirks you live with easily. Some you soften with the right choices—a few matter more. A family with young children might care about a bedroom near the street, while a couple working from home might focus on where the light falls. The goal is to know which things deserve your attention and which you’ll forget about a month after moving in.

Vastu and Feng Shui taught me to look at the whole picture, not just one problem, but how everything fits together. I can see what matters, what does not, and where the trade-offs are.

It is less of a system and more about paying attention.

I once visited a house on a busy road that changed how I think about small spaces. The owner had surrounded the yard with tall wooden planks lined with plants, together softening the traffic noise to almost nothing. She had laid a stone path that curved to the door, only seven steps, but the curve stretched the arrival, making it feel longer and more intentional than any straight line could. She had placed a small waterfall by the entrance and designed a sitting area that fit one person comfortably but felt like it could hold six. The trick was in the low furniture, the open views, and the lack of anything blocking your gaze across the space. Inside, the house had a small swing chair for two, two sofas, and a coffee table for four, yet it felt spacious with high ceilings, a light color palette, and every piece of furniture chosen to fit the room rather than fill it. Nothing competed for attention, eyesight could travel freely, and that sense of openness made the square footage irrelevant.

She had chosen every detail with respect to the room, with the furniture, where our eye lands, and the space left open to breathe. She did exactly what Vastu teaches. Work with what she had, not against it. She understood the space, its limits, and its strengths, and made choices that honored both. A home doesn’t need to be large to hold you well. It needs to be honest about what it is and designed around how it feels to live there.

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Why do I bring this up at all

This part of the work rarely shows up on a listing sheet. Yet it’s what people come back and tell me mattered most, months after moving in.

A good search filter and a floor plan can help you find a good house, but finding the one that truly feels like home takes a different kind of looking.

If this resonates with you, let’s walk through some houses together.

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What is Vastu Shastra?

Vastu Shastra is an ancient Indian system of architecture and design. It guides the placement of rooms, windows, and entrances based on direction and energy flow. The goal is to create spaces that feel balanced and support the well-being of the people living in them.

How is Vastu different from Feng Shui?

Vastu, rooted in Indian tradition, focuses on directional alignment and spatial planning. Feng Shui comes from Chinese tradition and focuses on energy balance and harmony. Both share the belief that the arrangement of a space affects how it feels to live in. I draw from both in the way I read homes.

What should I look for when buying a home?

Beyond the practical details like price, size, and location, pay attention to how the house feels. Notice the light, the entrance, and how the rooms connect. These are the things that shape your daily experience of living there, and they’re often the details people appreciate most after moving in.

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Whether you’re looking for a home in Marin County or want guidance on reading a space wherever you are, I’d love to hear from you. Reach out through the contact page.

— Dichenla