What do you expect a home daycare environment to look like?

The long version is we live in a small town with very limited infant care options. Only a handful of daycare centers accept babies under 1, and the ones that do have waiting lists a mile long. Home daycares stay full as well. Our first son didn’t start daycare until 14 months because that was how long it took to make it off of a waiting list.

Anyway, DS2 is five months and I got a call about an opening with an in home daycare. I went to visit yesterday and I was underwhelmed. The house was older, tiny, it felt dark inside. I guess in my head I was expecting it to look like a daycare center except in someone’s living room, but I realize that may be unrealistic.

My husband is less fazed and said people live in all kinds of houses and it’s the provider we should focus on, not her home.

I’ve never visited any other in home daycare so I’m wondering what is “normal”, if anything.